


Becoming

by TirNanOg89



Series: Past Is Prologue [11]
Category: Highlander - All Media Types, NCIS, Supernatural, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, Loving D/s, M/M, Multi, h/c
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 04:54:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 36,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3837811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TirNanOg89/pseuds/TirNanOg89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean meets Ducky's friends and everyone is in for a few shocks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

Becoming.

Chapter One.

Ducky pulled into an underground garage and smiled reassuringly at Dean. He had been unusually, but not surprisingly, quiet. He was obviously missing Jethro and Sam already, not to mention his baby, which he had left in Gibbs care, it would have been heartbreaking if he didn't know the whole story. They were met at the elevator by a well muscled man in a smart suit, Ducky smiled at him warmly, handing him Dean's bag.  
"Harold! It's so good to see you! It's been far too long. This is Dean Winchester, the young man I told you about."  
"It's always too long Ducky! Mr. Winchester, good to meet you. The boss is waiting for us upstairs."  
Dean just nodded silently. For the first time since he could remember he was truly out of his depth, he didn't have a clue what was going to happen. This was not something his life had prepared him for in any way, just the opposite to be fair. Just to add to the fish out of water feeling he now felt woefully under dressed too. Ducky was his usual dapper self, Harold was in a suit and they seemed to be in one of the big skyscrapers of Manhattan. Dean was not happy, he really wanted to get back in the car and refuse to get out again until he was back at Gibbs house, but he had never succumbed to fear in his life and he refused to start now.  
They made their way to the elevator and it took all of Deans self-control to not jump and reach for a weapon he didn't have when an English voice told them 'Sir' was waiting for them in the main kitchen, then greeted him and Ducky by name. Disembodied voices had never been a safe thing in his life, it would take some getting used to.  
"Don't mind JARVIS, he runs the place for us, if you need anything just ask him, he can sort out most things and point you in the right direction for anything else."  
Deans first thought was Hal. He shuddered lightly and Ducky only caught it because he was watching so closely.  
"Don't worry lad, JARVIS is a wonderful person, in a manner of speaking, with your sense of humour you'll get along just fine with him and Anthony."  
Dean just shrugged and stayed quiet. Ducky held in the sigh that wanted to escape and hoped Dean would adapt to this as fast as he did everything else. He knew this was the best place for him but the transition would be difficult. The elevator was fast and the floor numbers flew by until it finally stopped and the doors opened. Happy stepped out, nodded to the man waiting for them and said goodbye to Ducky before leaving with Deans bag. The room was not what Dean had expected, it was clean and casually understated in a way that still screamed 'money' but was obviously lived in and well-used. There was a huge kitchen area separated from the seating and dining area by a counter. Dean could imagine chatting and listening to Gibbs while they cooked in the gleaming modern kitchen. His focus then went to the man standing by the bar, the well stocked bar behind him was a little distracting but he managed to ignore it, mostly. The man was around 5'8", with black hair and brown eyes and a gorgeous smile directed at Ducky. He was wearing ratty threadbare jeans and an old band t-shirt which immediately made Dean feel more at ease. Unfortunately he then realised who he was looking at. Dean may have a problem keeping up with the news but this man was an engineering legend. Tony Stark was not a man you could miss or forget. Dean thanked his lifetime of self control for not turning into a gibbering mess at the sight of the man. That was the point at which Dean Winchester, at the age of 32 realized something new about his self. He had developed the ability to blush! He ducked his head and hoped Stark hadn't noticed. Stark was descending on Ducky and enveloping him in a hug, being much more touchy-feely than Dean was comfortable with in anyone, let alone strangers. It didn’t take long to realise that Stark was just as physical as Abby, almost every fifth word out of his mouth, as he greeted Ducky, was accompanied by a touch of some sort. Dean kept back in self defence, practically hiding behind Ducky.  
Tony Stark was not a 'socially adept' person, he was charismatic and showy but not good with people, he was a very perceptive person though, so he saw Dean's discomfort and made sure he left Ducky between them as he greeted his old friend.  
"Ducky! It's been too long! I told you to come up ages ago!"  
"The city has been a little chaotic recently Anthony, and work has been busy too."  
"Sad, sad excuses my friend! I would have flown you in, you know that! Anyway! You have a new playmate for me!"  
With that Tony started towards the elevator, dragging Ducky back with him.  
"Come on! Let me show you candy land! Dean, I can call you Dean right? Call me Tony. You're gonna love it! I got all the best toys!"  
Tony didn’t stop talking the entire trip up to the R&D levels. He didn’t stop talking when they got there either, he was still talking to Ducky, trying to give Dean time to settle in and get used to him. Dean had apparently done both, or at least tuned him out, he had been wandering around the main lab, glancing at the work of the SI staff as he went, until he found a row of white boards covered in equations. Dean stood looking at the equations, getting lost in the numbers. Numbers had never been the same as letters for Dean, letters wandered around on a page and got lost within the whole, words took forever to form, to make sense, numbers were different. Numbers flew over the page, or board, and became pictures, the pictures span and whirled and became whole objects. He didn’t have to try and make them stay still like he did with letters, because the numbers spoke to him, drew their selves into pictures so he knew what they were. These numbers weren't flowing properly, it happened sometimes if an equation was wrong, the error was obvious, so he changed it and the numbers flew into place, the picture resolving into a computer chip. The next board over was a different chip, this one flowed naturally into being before his eyes so he moved on to the next. There were several mistakes throughout the equations so he fixed them, moving down the boards, piecing the components together until he could see what the whole would be. He fixed the final board before finding a small free corner and drawing the final product, a mobile phone. Once he was finished he stood and looked at his own doodled pictures, to check them, and once he had decided they were right he realised the room was silent.  
This was not good.  
He hated silence with a passion, and generally filled it as soon as he could, only this silence was too pointed to fill with gibberish and he didn’t have a stereo, he didn’t have a clue what to say. His head dropped and his shoulders rose, hands sliding into his pockets as he shrank in on his self, examining his boots and hoping someone would do something soon to break this damn silence as his heart started pounding and his breathing became shallow and too fast..  
"What the hell?"  
That wasn’t quite what he had been hoping for, but it was something. He kept his head down and tried to shrink as much as possible as he tried to control his heart and his breathing. Ducky made his way over to his side and patted him on the shoulder.  
"Breath Dean, you haven't done anything wrong, we're all just surprised at what you have just done. Can you explain why you changed what you did?"  
Dean finally looked up at him and found out something else new about his self, he stuttered under great stress.  
"I, I, just f,f,fixed 'em."  
"How Dean?"  
"They didn’t w,work, the p,pictures didn’t w,work."  
"What pictures Dean? Breath deeply, and tell me from the beginning."  
Dean took a deep breath and closed his eyes, imagining he was surrounded by vampires, and how fucked up was his life that that was what calmed him down? He kept his eyes closed as he talked, just like he was giving his Dad a report on a Hunt.  
"The picture didn’t work so the numbers were wrong, I fixed the wrong numbers so I could see the pictures, the new Stark Phone, the flip up one, they haven't done those before, and a new type of chip and motherboard set up, so they had a few bumps, but I fixed it."  
"Take a break people, go have a long lunch, be back at two, get back at it then. Go!"  
Tony knew the last thing Dean needed right now was an audience and he desperately wanted to know exactly what he meant by 'the pictures'. Ducky gave him a grateful smile as the staff poured out of the room quickly.  
"Why don’t we sit down Dean? Then you can explain."  
Dean finally opened his eyes and looked at him in confusion.  
"I just did!"  
"Yes, but what pictures Dean?"  
"'The' pictures! The number pictures! The ones the numbers make!"  
"How do you mean?"  
"What? Am I talking in Latin all of a sudden? The damn number pictures!"  
Ducky and Tony shared a look, it was obvious Dean didn’t know why they were confused and was getting angry to cover his own nerves.  
"Dean, let's try this another way, look at the whiteboard, tell me exactly what you see."  
Dean looked at him in confusion for a long time.  
"Why? What do you see?"  
"I see lines of numbers and symbols."  
Dean just looked more confused.  
"There are no lines, they're all over the board! If you just look at it for a while the pictures come out. Like those funny pictures, you stare for a bit and the picture changes."  
"Really? Damn! Oh you are so mine! I am never letting you go!"  
Dean looked at him in confusion for a while before Ducky took pity on him.  
"I have never heard of anyone who sees numbers as pictures Dean."  
"But that's how they are, how they've always been."  
"But not to others Dean. This is unique to you. As I said, I have never heard of anything like this before. You have a gift Dean."  
Dean looked at him for a long time, glancing at Tony every time the man shifted on his stool.  
"So?"  
"So what?"  
"Exactly, so what? What happens now?"  
"Now, unfortunately, I have to get home."  
Dean glared at him for a while before dropping his head again, shoulders raising as he went back into his shell. Tony and Ducky shared another look and Ducky sighed. He knew Tony would look after his young friend, just as he knew it was going to remain painful for Dean for a while. Knowing that it was all necessary was the only thing keeping him going at the moment, the same as it was the only thing that had allowed Gibbs to watch them drive away from his house the night before. The whole experience was nothing but pain all around but they all knew it was needed, and couldn’t be avoided, so they coped as best they could and put up with the pain. Dean remained silent as Tony and Ducky said their goodbyes, not looking up from his scuffed boots. If he ignored everything, maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much, because this on top of having to leave Gibbs last night was getting too much, he couldn’t deal with all the emotional upheaval, so he ignored it. Ducky finally patted his shoulder as he said goodbye. Dean grunted back as the older man headed to the elevator, then sat in silence as the last link to Gibbs and Sam disappeared, leaving him truly alone with a legend whom he didn’t know.  
Tony looked at Dean after Ducky had left, the young man looked thoroughly dejected, and very slightly terrified. He decided to go with what he knew, when he was confused or upset he headed straight for his workshop and started working on anything he could.  
"So, I have more equations you can play with if you want. I wasn’t joking when I said I was keeping you, I want you here working with me. To start with you can look over some of the bigger projects my people are working on, it'll get Pepper off my back for a while, or you can start working with me directly, either way. Come on up to my office, your employment contract is up there, once we get that signed you can play to your hearts content. Just follow me, we'll get the paperwork done then I'll show you your room, you can go rest up for a while if you want."  
Dean stood up and followed Tony to the elevator without looking up. Tony sighed, this was going to be a hard sell, but it would be worth it once he finally had Dean on side. He took him up to his personal office and handed him the contract Pepper had written up for him. Dean took the papers and glared at the first line, knowing he was going to have the mother of all migraines by the time he had finished. He didn’t even notice when his tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth, his concentration was so intensely focused on the roaming letters on the paper. He was starting to get really frustrated, and he was only on the second line.

"Give me that!"

Dean looked up at Stark in surprise letting him pull the form out of his hand.

"Why didn’t you just say you were dyslexic? JARVIS, go thorough the contract with him, get the crap out of the way so we can play."  
"Hang on, what do ya mean dyslexic?"  
"That little wiring problem in your brain that makes the letters run around on the page? That little issue that makes any written work impossible when you're tired? Wow, you have never been diagnosed have you? How the hell did you get through school? More importantly how did you manage the entrance exams for MIT?"  
"I wanted to go there, I knew I had to pass to get in so I refused to fuck it up, plus there was no time limit, took about three days."  
"Well, that explains that one, but how did you go through school without anyone figuring it out?"  
"We were never in the same school for more than a few months. No wonder Sam never minded the research, always gives me a headache."  
"Not surprising. JARVIS, make a note to factor this in."  
"Of course Sir, already done. If you give Mr Winchester a headset we wont disturb you while we sort out the paper work and he will be ready to get to work."  
"Done and done! Here, try this one on."

Tony handed Dean a small headset that he had designed for the Avengers, it moulded to the persons ear so it was a lot harder to loose than most, they needed it with their work, and was EMP and electrical interference shielded, for Thor. Tony had a random thought.

"So how old are you anyway?"  
"Depends."  
"How can your age depend?"  
"Well, this body's about three, mind's about seventy, but I was born in '78, and how old I feel depends on the day."

Tony stared at him for a moment.

"Gonna need a bit more to go on there, Ducky told me you were a Hunter, but nothing I've heard of could cover that!"  
"Hell."  
"I take it you mean literal."  
"Yeah, forty years."  
"Wow! And I thought three months in a cave in Afghanistan was bad."

Dean looked at him for a while then put the ear piece in and listened to JARVIS. It was the work of minutes for JARVIS to read out the contract and Dean to agree to it. As soon as it was done Dean signed it, officially becoming an employee of Stark Industries. Tony's smile lit up his face.

"Right! Now you are officially mine! I have been reliably informed that I will be killed slowly and painfully if I don’t look after you properly, apparently your eating habits are worse than mine used to be, so follow me and I will feed you, show you your room and then you can decide what to do next. So, what are you hungry for?"

Dean looked at him for a while before nodding without answering. Tony nodded back, accepting that he wasn’t going to get a verbal response just yet, and led him back to the elevator, taking him back to the main kitchen.

"This is the main common floor, we all turn up here at some point during the day, so don’t be surprised if you find people here. Feel free to help your self to whatever you want, and if something you want isn't here just let JARVIS know and he'll order it for you. All the take out menus we use are on the fridge, just get JARVIS to check if anyone else wants anything before you get him to place the order for you. There's no alcohol in the building, the bar is for show, all the bottles are full of coloured water. I know it's weird but the bar looks wrong without the bottles and Pep wont let me re-model until the city is back in one piece, say's it's 'a ridiculous waste of builders while the city is still in chaos'. So it'll stay like it is for now, till she lets me change things. When I say there's no alcohol in the building, I mean it, and it will stay that way. It's hard enough staying sober without anyone else making it worse, so don’t bring any in."

Dean glared at him for a while when he mentioned the alcohol, it was the first time he had really looked at him since Ducky had left. This pissed him off, who the hell had told him? What right did they have? He didn’t really pay attention to everything else he said, so he missed what would have been glaringly obvious had he listened.

"Who the hell told you? What makes you people think you can just go around talking about me? I don’t give a fuck if you're my boss now, it don’t give you no right to mess in my personal shit!"  
"What? I didn’t need telling, I made the choice. Oh hell! Not you too? Ducky didn’t mention anything. I stopped drinking about five months ago, my boyfriends didn’t appreciate me killing myself."  
"Boyfriends?"  
"That's what you latch on to? Not anything else, just the boyfriends?"  
"Dude, you gotta be doing something right to get two, or is it more?"  
"The two of them are more than enough! Steve and Nick keep me sane, give me a reason to stick to it, whether 'it' is staying sober or staying alive."

Dean looked so like a starving waif staring through the window of a high end restaurant, not begrudging anyone their food but wishing desperately that he could have some. Tony felt for him, he knew what it was like to always be on the outside looking in. He also knew how hollow and condescending anything he said would sound, so he said nothing about it.

"So! Food! What do you want?"

Dean accepted the diversion for what it was. It didn’t take them long to fix up sandwiches and eat them, they were just finishing cleaning up, with Tony bitching about being made to clean up his own mess since his boyfriends moved in, when the elevator pinged and the doors opened. Tony's face lit up as Steve walked over to them with a smile and gave Tony a quick kiss on the lips. Dean cringed as the big blond zeroed in on them but had nowhere to hide, so he stared at his boots and hoped to be ignored. No such luck.

"Dean, this is Steve Rogers, the lighter half of my boyfriends. Steve, this is Dean Winchester, he's the engineering genius and Hunter that Ducky bought me!"  
"Pleasure to meet you Dean, welcome to the Tower. I hope Tony's treating you well."  
"Yes Sir."

Dean looked him in the eye as he answered before looking back to his boots, he knew a military man when he saw one, and his mother had ingrained good manners into him from an early age, and though he often chose not to use them, his father had taught him not to piss off a military man. Steve's smile faded a little before he looked at Tony who shook his head slightly, no, it was nothing about him that had caused this reaction. They all knew that Dean would be arriving today, they had all been told he was a genius but had a History, they all knew well how much a History could damage a person, nothing else had to be said, Dean would tell them what he wanted them to know, when he wanted them to know it. 

"Please, call me Steve, I may be a captain but I still work for a living."

Dean smiled at that, thinking of Gibbs saying nearly the same thing to him not so long ago, then he snorted remembering the amount of times he had heard it from his father, not that it was ever said to him or Sam, they still had to call him sir. 

"'s Dean. Tony gave me a job."  
"Tony likes to have the best working for him."

Dean looked up at him then, a little startled and shook his head a little. Steve smiled at him then, the thousand watt smile.

"Trust me, Tony Stark only has the best! And unless you're a politician, what you see is what you get. He doesn’t accept second best, certainly not in his people, he was spoilt as a child."  
"Hey!"  
"We still love you, spoilt brat and all."  
"Well, that's ok then, just so long as that's clear."  
"Have you two eaten?"  
"Yes, we just ate, I didn’t forget! When's Nick back?"  
"He should be here any minute, we drove back together, but he had a phone call as we got here so he sent me on up. And that should be him!"

The elevator had pinged as Steve was speaking and Dean was seriously considering finding somewhere to hide now, just how many more people were going to turn up?  
The doors opened and Nick strode out into the room, tall dark and imposing with a frown on his face.

"You'd think with the amount we spend on training our personnel they would understand the concept of 'vacation' but apparently not."  
"Nick, this is Dean Winchester."

Nick looked at Dean, waiting to catch his eye because he was staring at his boots once again. Nick was used to dealing with pretty much anything and anyone, and he had plenty of experience with broken, even before Tony. So he stood and waited, just looking at Dean until he finally gave up trying to hide and looked him in the eye. Nick often saw a hell of a lot more than most people, despite having only one good eye, and he saw plenty when he looked at Dean. Dean was Trouble, in all the best ways, just like Clint and Natasha, and Tony, it would take a lot of work to get this boys trust and loyalty, but once they had it, he knew it would never waver. Nick nodded to Dean, a simple action that conveyed a hell of a lot to one that could parse it, and Dean could, mostly. Dean understood that he had been 'seen' and accepted, he just didn’t get why. Why were these people so accepting? They were either really naive or scary fucking smart, and he was afraid it was the latter.

"Welcome to the nut farm, you'll do fine."  
"Yes Sir."

Dean was quiet, but Nick knew he meant it as an answer to his look more than his words.

"You work for Tony, not me, call me Nick."  
"Yes Sir."

Nick smirked at the slip, and knew there would be many more, he had a file on Dean and his brother, not that he had mentioned it to the others yet, and he let it slide.

"You two eaten?"  
"Yes! I can feed myself!"  
"Yeah, just not often enough, and I know Special Agent Gibbs reputation, he wont accept 'we were busy' as an excuse."

Dean couldn’t help snorting at that, Gibbs sure hadn't accepted it when he'd tried it! Nick smirked at him then smiled at Tony again, stepping up to him to kiss him lightly on the lips in greeting. 

"So, as good as advertised?"  
"So much better! The kid sees numbers as pictures! I took him to the monkey lab, he just corrected every mistake the monkeys had made on the boards and drew the finished phone in a corner! Fuck me I almost kissed him!"

Dean was doing that new blushing thing again! Steve gave him a sympathetic grin.

"Wishing the ground would open and swallow you?"

Dean shuddered in revulsion as his mind immediately jumped to the one time the ground 'had' opened, and swallowed his brothers. 

"Fuck no!"

His growl was a hell of a clue that that had hit a nerve some how, and the other three looked at him. He stared at his boots. They were good boots. He had been through a lot in these boots, before and after Hell, they were one of the few things that had stayed with him, even his baby had to stay with Gibbs, but he still had his boots. Then he realised he was getting sentimental over his 'boots' and got pissed off. Why the hell was he standing, no 'cowering', here? He had been through hell and Hell in his too long life, like fuck was he going to cower now! He stood up straight and looked (glared) Nick in the eye, just daring him to say something, anything!

"You'll do."

Nick smiled at him and he couldn’t help thinking of Gibbs. And Nick was taken too, fuck it all! The elevator pinged again before anyone could react to that, and 'more' people walked in. There were three more men and a woman and Dean automatically assessed each of them, tensing up at the buzzing in his head but refusing to cower any more. The woman reminded him of Ziva, dangerous and just what he would have hit on in the past. The man next to her had sandy brown hair and gorgeous arms, set off beautifully in a sleeveless top. Just behind him was a man in a suit that screamed 'danger' just like Nick did, for all his bland expression. What really caught his attention was the man at the back of the group, he was smiling gently as the man and woman at the front teased each other about something, he had mad curly hair and soft brown eyes behind his glasses, but for all his softness Dean could see a core of steel in him, in the way he moved so carefully, not scared exactly, more protective, though why Dean didn’t know. As the group moved closer Dean made sure not to stare, the last thing he wanted to do was cause offence. Nick smirked at Clint and Natasha's antics as he spoke.

"Settle down kids, this is Dean Winchester. Dean, this is Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov, Phil Coulson and Bruce Banner, the rest of the inmates."

The four nodded as they were introduced, Clint with a huge welcoming grin and Bruce with a small but just as welcoming smile, the other two were stoic but not unwelcoming, Phil giving him a careful once over like he was searching him for weapons. Dean nodded back to them but held his ground, still feeling a little defensive. Phil turned to look at Tony.

"You eaten?"  
"Fuck! Yes MOM! And I fed Dean, and I showered, and I put on 'all' clean clothes! And I said my prayers like a good boy!"  
"Don't lie Tony, it's not nice."

Steve said with a grin. Tony smirked back with a teasing glint in his eyes.

"No, you're right, I didn’t bother with underwear, I'm an optimist!"  
"Tony!"

Tony laughed as Steve tried to chastise him but couldn’t help grinning. Nick shook his head at the lot of them.

"Right, I have a week off, at last, so I'm gonna change, then we can think about what we're doing for the rest of the day."

Tony was torn for a moment, did he abandon Dean now to allow him to find his feet, or try and ease him into the rest of the team slowly? He looked at Dean, defiant but obviously still wanting to run away, then to Steve, who gave him an encouraging smile. Good, Steve was all for the sink or swim policy, so he could go play with his men. He spoke quickly as he grabbed Steve's arm and pulled him after Nick.

"Get to know each other! No breaking anything. No bloodshed. Have fun, I know I will be!"

Dean glared at Tony's back for a moment as the bastard left him, abandonment crashing down and smothering the anger, his head dropping and shoulders rising as he went back to staring at his boots. His boots didn’t abandon him for fun times with two guys so hot it should be illegal. And hello! Envy was back.

"Nice boots. Don’t seem quite interesting enough for that level of scrutiny though. Hi, I'm Bruce. We all tend to be the 'sink or swim' type around here, he thinks you need this."  
"Right! Cause that's exactly what he was worried about!"  
"Strange, I know, but still true. That's why he checked with Steve before leaving, he trusts his instincts more than his own when it comes to people."

Dean quickly glanced at Phil as he spoke, before going back to his boots. So it wasn’t just Tony that thought he wasn’t worth sticking around for, at least he knew now.

"That look is nothing but trouble. You don’t know us well enough to get it yet, but when Tony adopted you, we all did."  
"I aint a fucking puppy!"

Dean finally looked up, glaring straight at Clint, who grinned at him like a mad man.

"Thought there was someone in there. You're gonna be living here, you gotta get used to the madness. Tony saw something more than a geek in you, and so did Steve, or they wouldn’t have left you here."  
"I aint a geek either!"  
"Sure. That's why Tony's been geeking out about the new genius he managed to snag when MIT missed him, twice."  
"Clint, Mr Winchester is a Hunter first and foremost. And has a very impressive record."

Clint grinned at Phil, full of mischief.

"Yeah, I know, Tasha hacked it, just reminding him of that."

Dean's eyes narrowed for a moment at that, he did 'not' appreciate being goaded at the best of times, and this was far from it, but he was used to thinking on his feet, engaging his brain before reacting, so he saw it for what it was, an attempt to help him loosen up, remember who he was and get the fuck on with it instead of being a whiny bitch. Dean straightened his back and remembered just who Dean Winchester really was, no matter what shit he found his self in, and smirked at Clint. 

"Thanks for the reminder. Call me a geek again and I'll give you an up-close and personal intro to that reputation."  
"Really? That a threat Mr Winchester?"  
"I don’t threaten."  
"Ooh! Tasha! We got a feisty one on our hands!"  
"Don’t drag me into this pissing match. You can pull 'em out and compare or just go to the gym and get on with it."

Dean gave her his most successful 'come fuck me' smile for that.

"I wouldn’t wanna embarrass him in front of his friends Beautiful."  
"Natasha. And I doubt you could."

She said it all with a flat voice and a straight face, then she grinned at him.

"Lets find out, it'll be fun."  
"We have to work on your definition of fun Natasha. But I think you have the right idea, we could all learn something. In the gym!"

Bruce added that last bit in response to Dean's truly lecherous smirk and waggling eyebrows in his direction. Clint and Dean chuckled, looked at each other and decided, what the hell! They all made their way to the gym as Dean tried to hide his awe at the building, especially the gym. It was set up perfectly for anything and everything he could possibly want to do in the way of exercise or training. They headed over to a padded area and Dean followed, watching Clint's every move, just as Clint was watching him. They both moved like predators, sleek, efficient and screaming 'dangerous' to all who could read it. The other three were paying just as close attention to the two 'combatants', as they reached the mats and Clint knelt down to remove his boots. Dean cocked his head at him and Bruce noticed, smiling. 

"No shoes on the mats, it wrecks them."

Dean shrugged and took his off too, putting them neatly out of the way as he scrunched his bare toes in the mat, getting a feel for the terrain. Clint joined him and they circled each other for a while, like wild cats, sizing each other up, the other three watching rapt on the sidelines. Clint made a feint but Dean didn’t flinch, watching his eyes all the time, waiting for that moment when it would all explode, and it didn’t take long. Clint dove in with a jab and Dean ducked it, avoiding instead of trying to deflect, but he countered with a right hook to Clint's head that he barely avoided and it was on. The two men were both used to fighting for their lives, just in very different ways. Clint was trained to higher than military standards but was more used to long distance sniping than hand to hand in his daily work, and Dean was used to fighting things a lot stronger and bigger than he was with close combat weapons. Being close and weapon less left them both out of their comfort zone and pretty equal. 

Until Dean lost it. 

Clint was having fun, Dean was a great fighter, unpredictable, untrained by SHIELD standards but damn good for a civilian, and Natasha would probably train him up before long, teach him everything he was willing to learn, then Clint would have to watch out, but for now it was fun. 

Until it wasn’t anymore. 

It was such a simple thing, such a stupid inconsequential thing to most, but not to Dean. Phil's phone went off. Clint and Tony had been playing with the ring tones and it was currently set to play barking dogs when Hill called him. Everyone was watching the match so they all saw the instant reaction when Dean heard the dogs. His eyes glassed over and a look of true terror flashed over his face, just as Clint threw a punch. If the timing had been even slightly different it would have probably been ok, but hearing big dogs barking and snarling like that always took Dean back to the Hell Hounds, being dragged down into Hell and everything that came with it. Having someone attack him at the same time was guaranteed to set him off in a spectacular fashion. Dean was no longer in a safe Tower, surrounded by non-hostiles, if not yet friends, he was back on the verge of Hell and all he could do was fight! Both men had been holding back, it was a friendly game, not a fight, but now Dean was far away and long ago and he 'had' to kill to survive. He went from dangerous to deadly in under a second, instinctively knowing he had no weapons so he fought with everything he had, going for the kill as fast as possible before those he could sense around them joined in and overwhelmed him with sheer numbers, like they had last time. 

Clint jumped back and away as soon as he felt the change come over Dean, trying to get out of the way and not scare him any more than he already was, only Dean followed him. It was plain to them all that Dean was no longer with them, though they didn’t know where he had gone to in his head, and he was obviously ready and willing to go down fighting, and take as many of them with him as he could, which made this bloody hard for all of them. When they tried to pull away he followed, taking the fight to them, if they closed in he fought like a wild animal and it wouldn’t be long before something truly dangerous, or fatal, happened to someone. Even Natasha couldn’t get close to him without 'trying' to seriously hurt him. So Bruce, who had stayed as far back as possible from the start, got pro-active. Dean was a protector. He had a younger brother and they had 'History', to Bruce at least it seemed obvious he must be a protector, so he decided to take a chance, try to get past the terror that was holding Dean by way of his instinctive need to protect. Bruce let his self fall to the floor and yelled like he was in pain, he didn’t even think until later about just how much teasing he could have been letting his self in for, he just did it, laying curled up on the floor and yelled again for good measure. Turns out he was right. Dean stopped and turned to look at him as soon as he yelled the first time, then he yelled again and Dean saw a shape turn to look too and that was all it took. He was across the room and between Bruce and the others before they knew he was moving, standing protectively over him as they all backed away, seeing what Bruce was doing and trusting him to take care of Dean, they all slowly moved away from the two of them and left the room. Dean wasn’t going to calm down as long as he thought there was a threat, so they took the threat away and left him to Bruce.

"Dean."

Bruce spoke quietly, almost a whimper, as he curled tighter to get Deans attention. He got it. Dean turned to him as soon as the threat was out of the room, knowing he would hear anyone trying to get back in, and started running his hands all over the downed body, checking for anything amiss, the cause of the pained yell he had heard, but couldn’t find anything. As he went through the familiar motions of checking for injuries Deans heart rate started slowing, he started breathing properly and his adrenalin spike settled, his fight instinct now subsumed by the need to protect and fix. Bruce lay absolutely still as Dean checked him, a small part of his mind noting that the check was quick and thorough, covering everything from head to feet, starting with the head and moving to the extremities before the core, checking the most vulnerable bits first, he would make a great triage nurse. Once Dean was sure there were no physical injuries he started petting him instead, reassuring them both that he was there and ready to protect, muttering comfortingly under his breath, letting Bruce know he was safe. Bruce shivered as he considered what this mans life had been like, to be so knowledgeable without formal education, to be instinctively protective of others, even a virtual stranger, while he was so scared and lost in his own mind, it was amazing, but also heartbreaking as he came to exactly the same conclusion that Gibbs had not so long ago, Dean meant nothing to Dean, his only worth in helping others, protecting them, giving his self for them, anyone, it didn’t matter who, because to Dean, he was worth nothing unless he was helping someone else. 

Bruce slowly started to uncurl, allowing his body to relax, giving Deans body permission to relax too. He made sure his breaths were deep and even, hearing Deans fall into line with his own. It took a while, but eventually Dean's eyes lost the glassy sheen, coming back to reality as his hands continued to pet Bruce, comforting them both as he settled. Bruce decided to take a chance, instead of waiting for Dean to run away from him in embarrassment. 

"Hi."  
"…"

Dean's mouth opened as if he was going to answer but then he realised where he was and what he had done. Dean blushed in mortification and tried to push his self up and away from Bruce but didn’t have time. Bruce grabbed his wrist tight and spoke firmly, leaving no room for argument.

"Stay!"  
"Not your god damn fucking puppy!"

Anger was an automatic reaction, not that he moved. And Bruce was willing to take full advantage of that.

"You're my fucking puppy if I say so! Sit down and stay!"

A full body shudder ran straight through Dean and his head fell forward and to the side, baring his neck in full submission as he sank to the floor to sit beside Bruce. Bruce sighed, deeply pleased on an instinctive level at such open obedience. He hadn't meant to say anything so possessive to Dean, obviously he had noticed the other man, his body was damn near perfect and his eyes were to die for, but his tongue had run off without him and it appeared to have been a good thing. Bruce slowly sat his self up and thought, what the hell, the man needed some kind of comfort in his life. 

"Come here."

He gently tugged Dean over and down into his lap, so his head was resting on his thigh. Though he grumbled a little, Dean relaxed as soon as his head hit the warmth of another body and he went limp. Bruce smiled down at him and started running his fingers through his hair, just gently soothing the younger man. 

"We all have issues, here, we all have nightmares, and triggers and occasionally flip out over something unexpected, that's just life, here in the Tower anyway. I don’t know your story, apparently some of the others have hacked something again, they always do that, that's one of their issues, they have to know everything about everyone immediately. Surprise parties a no-no! Nobody here deals well with surprises. Last time Clint decided to pull a prank on Tony it went very badly."

Bruce couldn’t help thinking back to that day with a shudder, he had seen a lot in his travels but nothing like Tony's reaction.

************  
Flashback.

Tony hadn't stayed in Miami for long, he had gone straight back to New York when Nick said it was time he got back to his own job. As soon as they got back to the Tower Tony couldn’t help showing them the suites he had furnished for each of the Avengers, just in case they had wanted to stay for a while if they were in town. Nick had jumped on the idea and told him he was about to be invaded before moving the whole team into the Tower. Tony was not entirely comfortable with the situation, he wasn’t used to people in his space, so Steve had decided on a 'team-building' day, apparently he and Nick had discussed it extensively, and planned a day out at Central Park for the team to 'connect' outside of a battle situation. Tony couldn’t figure out why living in his Tower together didn’t seem to count. They had been to Belvedere Castle, which was fine, and were supposed to be playing Frisbee by Turtle Pond. It should have been ok, though a waste of his time, the problem was that every time Tony tried to move away from the gapping maw of water he somehow found his self back near it. He was almost convinced it was being done on purpose, but had decided he was being paranoid. He decided the only thing to do was drop out of the game and just move away from the water, so that was what he was doing, but the quickest way out was between Clint and the pond. He didn’t think much of it when Clint came barrelling towards him, Clint like the rest of them had been throwing his self into the game with great enthusiasm, but he didn’t stop. Tony was just starting to get worried when Clint made an obvious run straight at him and he realised exactly what was going to happen just a second too late. Clint ran straight into him, grabbed him around the waist and barrelled them both into the water before Tony could do much more than yell out a desperate 'NO!'. 

Clint came up from the water laughing, it was hilarious! He had finally managed to get Tony in the perfect position for a good dunking. Then he realised that Tony's yelling was more like terrified screaming, he was flailing in the water like he'd been dunked in acid. This was suddenly anything but funny, so he waded closer to try and pull Tony back to the bank, but Tony was going mental, lashing out and screaming bloody murder, and he couldn’t get close enough to help. Clint yelled for help but heard two splashes before he even finished the word as Steve and Thor joined him. Steve and Thor moved with a co-ordination born of long practice, Thor getting behind Tony and pinning his arms to his sides while Steve grabbed his legs before they bodily dragged him from the water. The whole team were unbelievably grateful that they had the area to their selves, SHIELD having cordoned off the area for as far as the eye could see, so no one else had seen this. Clint thought Tony had been fighting hard against the water, but as soon as he was pinned he started fighting like the devil his self, only Thor and Steve's inhuman strength letting them keep hold of him. 

Steve wasn’t sure what exactly to do once they had Tony on dry land, he recognised the signs of a flashback, of shell shock, when he saw them, the question was whether to hold him down safe or let him go. If they let him go he would no longer feel trapped, but he could do a lot of damage to his self if he carried on thrashing like he was. His mind working overtime, Steve finally came up with the answer.

"Call JARVIS! Speakerphone NOW!"

Coulson didn’t ask questions, he knew if Steve used that tone he really meant it, and had a definite reason, even if he didn’t have a clue what it was. He hit speed dial for the AI and put the phone on speaker, at it's highest volume and got it as close to Tony's head as possible. JARVIS answered on the first ring, as he always did, and didn’t need any explanations when he heard Tony screaming. 

"It is 14:38, on Thursday 24 of July, it is a dry 35 degrees and you are in Central Park. The Avengers are the only other humans in the area. All is well Sir."

As soon as the well known and beloved, and most importantly, calm English voice started speaking Tony stopped screaming. By the time JARVIS went quiet again Tony was still, stiff as a board but still, carefully held by Thor and Steve. Tony had his eyes scrunched shut and started trying to curl into a ball. Realising that he was no longer in danger of hurting his self the other two let go and allowed him a little space, staying in arms reach just in case. 

"Tony?"

Tony whimpered pitifully and curled up tighter, trying to pull away. The panic had dropped down several notches at JARVIS voice but he didn’t recognise Steve's, he was still shivering in reaction, adrenalin racing through his system as his mind tried to convince his body that it wasn’t in a cave in Afghanistan. JARVIS had started talking about random trivialities, like the picture Dummy had tried to draw with Steve's pencil and pad that he'd forgotten to take out of the lab, when the cleaning staff would be in next, when his dry cleaning would be ready for pick-up and which minion had been assigned to get it. Daily rubbish that he didn’t generally bother to tell anyone, but it was something to say, and allowed Tony to hear his voice. With Tony out of the building, and therefore the range of his sensors, JARVIS was just as worried as any of the humans present about the man, and only had what he could hear to go on. He didn’t know what had happened but Tony needed him, and he would be there for him in any way he could. Thor put a comforting hand on Tony's shoulder, just to let him know they were there for him, and pulled it back off like it had been burnt as Tony yelled and tried to scramble away from him.

"Don’t try and touch him! If any one of you wants to get back anywhere near anything I control you can back off now! Leave the phone with him and move away NOW!"

Steve already knew JARVIS was a hell of a force to be reckoned with, and the others knew, generally speaking, what the AI controlled, but none of them had heard him speak like this before! JARVIS was always the very definition of the perfect gentleman. Which just proved how serious the situation was, to all of them, and even Steve knew it was best to do exactly what they were told. They all backed off, leaving a good ten feet between them and Tony, still circled around him, protecting him from the outside world. It was one of the hardest things they had ever done but they all, except Steve, turned their backs on Tony to guard him, making sure no one saw let alone got near him in his vulnerable state. Clint was beating his self up, he still didn’t know what he had done wrong but it was obviously bad. Phil was worrying about Tony, but also Clint, knowing he would be blaming his self, and though it was technically his fault, how could he have anticipated this? The others were thinking the same, even Steve spared a thought for Clint before concentrating on Tony again. JARVIS spoke to Tony for ten minutes before he calmed enough to get back to the present, to shake off the cave and realise where he was, and then the edges of shame and embarrassment tried to nudge their way in. 

Steve saw the difference in his body language. The slow relaxing of every muscle in his lovers body as he came back to the present, and then the stiffening of the shoulders, the curling of the neck as he tried to disappear inside his self. Steve decided to chance the wrath of JARVIS and slowly shuffled towards Tony, making enough noise to not startle him.

"Tony? Don’t. Do not hide from us. I know you don’t blame Clint, so don’t blame your self either. It happened, now let it be over, ok? Let's get back home, get you in something dry, and Clint can make us all a hot chocolate, yeah? I think we could all do with it. I can call Nick and get him to meet us there, what do you think?"

As soon as Steve had started moving Phil had pulled out his other phone and called Nick. He wasn’t stupid, even if Nick weren't emotionally invested in Tony personally he would have wanted to know about it professionally. He spoke quietly into his phone as Steve spoke to Tony.

"Sir, there has been an incident, no one is physically damaged, but Tony is down. I need an airlift out for him and Steve."

Phil could hear Nick moving, a door opening and closing behind him as he walked.

"What the fuck happened?"  
"Clint decided to go for a swim, and took Tony with him, forcefully. Anyone else it would have been funny as hell, he managed to catch him by surprise, none of us knew what he was planning. Turns out not so funny when Tony panicked, in a big way."  
"God damn stupid, idiotic misfit bunch of kids! FUCK! No bath! Fucking bastard Afghanistan! That's why the bath was taken out!"  
"Water boarding."  
"Yeah, stubborn ass didn’t mention that to anyone did he? Oh, no, Tony fucking Stark can deal with it on his own! Like ripping a hole in his chest wasn’t bad enough! Fucking bastards! I'm on my way."

Phil disconnected the call to the sound of a chopper preparing for take off, Nick would be there in under five minutes. He turned his attention back to Tony and Steve.

"It's alright Tony, you're here with us, you're safe. Open your eyes for me Tony, can you do that for me?"

The next five minutes were almost interminable for every one of them. Clint was going over everything he knew about Tony, trying to figure out what could have triggered this kind of reaction and kept coming back to Afghanistan as the only variable he couldn’t account for. It didn’t take much to add two and two and come up with the correct answer. Phil was trying to figure out how to convince Clint that this whole mess wasn’t his fault, as was Natasha. Bruce was trying to remain calm and reminding his self over and over that the other guy would not be helpful right now, and Thor was trying to figure out who he could kill for making his friend react this way. Steve was still trying to convince Tony to open his eyes, too afraid of setting him off again to even dare touch him, though it took everything he had to not just pick him up and cradle him in his arms, at least give his self the illusion that he could protect him, when the chopper finally arrived. Nick was out of the chopper before it was even settled on the ground properly and stormed over to Tony and Steve.

"Back to the tower, all of you, debrief when I'm damn good and ready. Go!"

They were all reluctant to leave their friend, but they all knew he would feel bad enough that they had seen his break-down, without them staying to watch any longer, they also knew Nick and Steve were the best people to help him.

JARVIS was still on the phone line, he had heard everything, and he wasn’t about to leave until he had to. Steve was so used to his silent presence that he didn’t really think about it until he spoke as Nick got there.

"He is back with us, Nick, but still unresponsive."  
"Thank you JARVIS. Tony, we're going home now."

That was all the warning Tony had before Nick knelt down next to him and pulled his upper body up off the ground so he could hug him. Tony yelped as he was touched, still not completely with it, but calmed as soon as Nick started talking again.

"Hush Kit, you're safe. We're here. It's just you, me, Steve and J. Breath for me Kit, and open those eyes, stop hiding from us, you know that isn't allowed. You belong to us, we get to see what we want, when we want, now open."

Nick kept his voice firm but non-threatening, knowing exactly how to deal with Tony like this. Steve was still too gentle with him, perfectly understandable, he was still getting use to the three of them, but Tony needed a firm hand. He needed calm and firm when he was like this, when he was worried, or over-tired, or scared for any reason. When he was happy and solid, knew what he was doing and why, when he was playful and mischievous, then he needed Steve, someone who could play with him, be tormented and teased and wound up, and he always needed both of them to love him unconditionally and without reservation, that was why they worked so well together. Tony slowly blinked his eyes open, flicking them towards Nicks before trying to hide his head in his chest. Nick tucked a finger under his chin and tipped his head up again, smiling at him gently when he finally looked at him, eyes full of remembered fear and shame. Nick chuckled deeply at him.

"Stop that. We all know you're a hell of a lot saner and less fucked up than you should be. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Now Barton, don’t shake your head at me like that. I will be having words with him. Yeah, I know, he couldn’t have known. And we will be having words about that too. An effective team have to know each others triggers, and you know it. Quit glaring. I don’t expect full disclosure from the whole team on everything, but everyone needs to know triggers, especially ones this bad. If anyone else figures out any of you have triggers this bad they could effectively wipe out the Avengers, and that is not acceptable. Now get up, we're going home."

With that he stood up, pulling Tony with him and sending a quick look at Steve to make sure he was with them. Nick knew this had hit the whole team hard, he had to do some fast damage control. Clint would be guilty and the rest would be worried as hell over the both of them. He had to get back to the tower and make sure Tony was fit to talk to the rest of them, then get them all together and sort this out before it had a chance to fester and become a real problem. Wow, he had such an easy life.

End flashback.  
************

Bruce shook the memory off and gave Dean his full attention. 

"Nick had to come sort him out, even Steve couldn’t get through to him, and JARVIS only had a phone to work through so he felt almost as helpless as the rest of us. So we sat down and had a proper girly afternoon, warning everyone of our triggers."  
"No chick flick moments."  
"Hah! That's close to what most of us said. Nick didn’t leave us with much choice though, which was a good thing. So, sink or swim Dean Winchester, you gonna tell me what set you off?"

Dean was not happy. That was actually probably the worst understatement in the history of the Earth, but it would do for starters. He remained silent. Bruce growled low, deep in his throat and Dean shuddered again, whimpering as he grabbed the leg he was laid on and held on tight, damn near smashing his head into Bruce's thigh trying to hide the shaking. Bruce knew he couldn’t ignore it, nor could he let Dean get away with it, if there was any chance of them working together as a team then Dean had to be one of them, not just another tech monkey that screwed up in Tony's labs. He knew, on a gut level, that if he didn’t get through to Dean now then he never would, he had to prove to the broken man that he could and would be there for him, that he could rely on him, and by extension the others, that he wasn’t the only one that could or would protect others, and sometimes he was allowed to lean on them. Bruce truly didn’t believe Dean had ever had anyone to lean on for any real portion of his life. 

"Right, this is bloody uncomfortable, get up, now."

Dean was on his feat before his head had a chance to catch up with the rest of him, instincts taking over. Bruce smiled at him, but it wasn’t condescending or pitying, it was understanding but still firm, telling him he would be doing what he was told, quickly, until Bruce decided otherwise. Bruce stood up and stretched out his back before looking around, trying to figure out a good place for what might just be the most uncomfortable conversation in Dean's life so far. There was nowhere in the gym. Bruce sighed.

"JARVIS, could you ask the others to keep the TV room free for me please, I'm taking Dean there for a while."  
"Consider it done Bruce."

Dean jumped, again, as the damn voice in the ceiling surprised him, again! He really did not like disembodied voices! Bruce looked at him for a while as his heart rate dropped back to normal again.

"Come on then."  
"No."

Dean was getting his stubborn on again, he was bouncing back from the shock and terror and was going to dig his heels in. If anyone in this fucked up Tower thought they could just order him around they had another thing coming.

"With me, now!"  
"Yes Sir."

So much for that! Apparently it wasn’t just his dick that paid attention to strong, dominant older men, the rest of him was following on just fine thank you very much. Only his stubborn was getting in the way, and twice on the short walk between the rooms and the elevator Dean tried to baulk, only for Bruce to growl his name. It didn’t take long to get to the TV room, and its deep cushion filled pit of hedonistic comfort. The pit was a hedonist's delight, which is why Tony had it, it was basically a hole in the floor lined with thick soft foam and then filled with cushions of all shapes and sizes, the only thing they all had in common was being soft. The materials were all so soft but it was a treat Bruce rarely allowed his self, to just roll around in them near naked and feel. Dean apparently liked this as much as Tony did, once he got him in there. 

"Shoes and shirt off."

Dean just looked at him, a glare starting to form but Bruce didn’t give him enough time to really go off.

"Now!"

Dean jumped at the deep growl, pulling his shirt off and trying, for a moment, to toe his boots off before noticing he hadn't bothered putting them on before leaving the gym. Once he was done he looked over to see Bruce without his shirt and felt his jaw drop and other things rise, suddenly very glad he wasn't told to remove his jeans! Bruce wasn’t paying any attention to him, luckily, he was settling his self in the pit which was unbelievably comfy but not as easy as it looked. 

"Come here."

Again there was no room for argument in his tone and Dean reacted without thought, diving in and crawling over to his side. Bruce chuckled at him then grabbed his arm and pulled him in tight to his side, spooning up behind him and holding him tight. Dean shut his eyes and just let the feeling of safety and comfort wash over him as Bruce held him. Bruce grinned now that Dean couldn’t see it, he had noticed his reaction when he took off his shirt and it was good, very flattering and something he could work with, in more ways than one.

"Now talk. What set you off?"

Dean went stiff in all the wrong ways, shifting uncomfortably as his brain reset from horny sub to Hunter.

"Fuck you!"  
"Sorry, I don’t swing that way."

Dean almost whimpered his disappointment.

"I'll be doing the fucking."

He did whimper at that, then flushed bright red as he realised what he had done, even as he was wriggling his ass hopefully back into Bruce's crotch. Bruce chuckled, a deep resonance Dean felt as much as heard and clamped his hand down on Dean's hip to hold him still, getting another whimper for his trouble. 

"Tell me Dean, tell me what hurt you, let me protect you."

Dean felt as raw as he had when he first met Gibbs in that damn interrogation room, his soul feeling open and exposed, and he was kinda alright with that. Gibbs had taught him that he could be accepted by others, but he couldn’t give him everything he needed, he already had Tony and they were perfect for each other, but Bruce seemed more than happy to be here, with his hard cock rubbing against Deans ass through their jeans and not pushing him away. His voice was still full of steel but it was soft and it really sounded like he meant every word.

"Let me help you Dean, let me in."  
"Fuck!"  
"Later, first you talk to me, then we can think about fucking."  
"Promise?"

Dean's voice was small, so small and lonely and heartbreakingly hopeful. 

"I promise. Let me have all of you Dean, then I'll take you, and make you mine."

Damn, that was the right thing to say! Dean flipped in his arms, buried his face in his shoulder and spoke, it only took a few moments to feel the wet seeping over his shoulder as Dean let it all out.

"Sam was killed, stabbed in the back, I couldn’t save him, so I got him back. I made a deal with a crossroads demon, me for him, he gave me one year. Then the hellhounds came for me. You can't see them, you can only hear them, and Lillith was fighting Sam, so it was just me, and I couldn’t see them. I fought them, so hard, but it didn’t make any difference, they ripped me apart and dragged me to Hell."  
"You're doing well Dean, thank you for telling me. You survived Hell Dean."  
"Cas dragged me out, should have left me there."  
"No. You are here, and now you're mine, so it was worth him dragging you out."  
"I started the Apocalypse."  
"Did you decide to do that?"  
"Pretty much, yeah."  
"How?"  
"They put me on the rack, and I couldn’t get off, ever, only Alistair made me an offer, every day, he would let me go, off the rack, only I had to do his job, on the others."  
"And you said no."  
"Not for long enough."  
"Right, Tony said yes after less than a month, with humans who couldn’t do too much physical damage because they needed him to build things for them. Did he do wrong? Was he too weak?"  
"No!"  
"But you held out for how long?"  
"Thirty years."  
"Thirty years in Hell, where they could do anything, I take it there was no point of no return, they just kept on going."  
"Every damn day, I was back, they did everything, you can't do most of it to a living being, you can't describe what it feels like to have your eternal soul ripped and torn and eaten! Only for them to start again the next day, whole and feeling everything they ever did to me, everything!"  
"But you were pulled out Dean, and now you're here, with us, me. I want you to be mine Dean. I want you to give me all that you are, the good and the bad and the horrific too, I want all of you, if you will give it to me."

Dean just wriggled in tighter and shook. Oh how much he wanted to do just that! It would be so good, to just let someone in, like he had Gibbs, only to be allowed in his self, the one thing Gibbs couldn’t do for him. 

"Please!"

The whimper was torn from Dean, ragged and desperate, but no less meant. Bruce sighed deeply, wondering if he really knew what he was letting his self in for, taking on this beautiful broken creature, with everything that came with him. He tightened his grip around this virtual stranger and felt at home, for the first time since he could remember. The Tower was comfortable, safe and welcoming, as were the team, but Dean felt like home, just waiting for him to come in and lay his claim. And he had every intention of doing just that, though not right now. 

"Breath Dean, you're mine, and I have you, we're safe in the Tower, we'll protect you. I have you Dean, we're safe. You're safe Dean, you're safe."

Dean gave up on the quiet, almost hidden tears and sobbed, truly letting it out of his system, if only for a little while, he just didn’t have the strength left to fight the siren song of peace from Bruce. Bruce was like a brick wall of strength, so similar to Gibbs, an iron hand in a velvet glove. Only Bruce wasn’t taken and wanted him too. A very small voice in the back of Dean's head was telling him that Bruce didn’t know anything about him, so he couldn’t possibly really want him, and once he found out about everything he would run for the hills like every other bastard had before him, nobody wanted to deal with Dean's issues, not even Dean. A stronger voice, which sounded suspiciously like Gibbs, told it to fuck off and die before he helped it on it's way. 

As Deans sobbing began to trail off Bruce realised he had fallen asleep, his emotions catching up with his body. He sighed, thinking about what he could do now, he didn't want to wake Dean up, but he didn’t really want to lay here and do nothing until he woke either. JARVIS apparently saw his dilemma and found a solution for him, one of his favourite silent movies beginning to play on the big screen. Bruce smiled up at one of JARVIS's cameras in thanks and settled in to enjoy the film. Dean slept through the entire film, only waking as Bruce shifted trying to wake up his arm as it had fallen asleep. 

Dean woke instantly as soon as Bruce moved around him. He knew as he woke that something was different but it took a moment to figure out what it was. When it hit him he couldn’t help chuckling. 

He wasn’t scared.

He had woken in a strange room with a practical stranger wrapped around him and he hadn't freaked out as he woke. That had never happened to him before, not even with Gibbs and Tony that first day, that was why he rarely stayed all night with any of the people he fucked, and if he did he didn’t sleep. So why was Bruce so different? What was it about the man that made him feel so safe? He had been in the Tower less than a full day, had met Bruce only hours ago, so why? He was also sure he should be worried about how much of a subby little bitch he was around him too, but that didn’t bother him either. It actually felt really good, not having to make any decisions, not having to be strong, not having to protect anyone, not being the one in charge and responsible for everything and everyone. He took a deep breath and let it rush out of him as he felt his body fully relax for the first time since he was four years old.

"Hey, feeling better?"  
"Yeah, thanks. I'm sorry for jerking you around earlier."  
"No need to be, but thank you. You are who you are Dean, you're a fighter, that's what's kept you alive for so long, isn't it?"  
"Yeah, always had to fight, protect Sammy."  
"Yeah, that's what I figured. I would like to hear about Sam, when you're ready, it sounds like he's a big part of your life."  
"He is, always has been, even when he wasn’t there. It was my job to protect him, look after him. I talked to Gibbs and Tony about a lot of stuff, over the last few weeks, still trying to get things straight in my head."  
"That's not a problem Dean, when you're ready."  
"Yeah, ok."

Dean sighed again, snuggling closer to Bruce, curled up safe and comfortable in the cushions.

"Don’t suppose anyone else would appreciate it if you fucked me in here, huh?"

Bruce chuckled, squeezing him a little tighter.

"No, they wouldn’t, it's a 'No Sex' zone, all the common areas are. We are a close team but none of us want to walk in on Tony, Nick and Steve naked. Steve is enough to make you feel inadequate at the best of times, I don’t need to see him naked and athletic."  
"He's easy on the eyes but not my type, too soft."

Bruce laughed out loud at that, he couldn’t help it.

"Sorry, not laughing at you, just the idea of Steve being soft, you should see him at work!"  
"Can't really see it, but I'll take your word for it."

Bruce gave him a funny look at that, Captain America was a lot of peoples favourite, and he had never heard of anyone thinking he was soft, but after the way Dean had fought Clint, Natasha and Phil he didn’t say anything. 

"So, you don’t think I'm soft?"

Dean thrust his hips, rubbing his cock against Bruce's crotch for a moment, just until he got a reaction.

"Nope!"

Bruce chuckled and pulled him in for a tight hug for a moment, before trying to untangle his self from Dean and the cushions.

"Come on then, with me."

Dean was surprisingly agile in the cushions, and complimentarily eager to follow him. Bruce couldn’t help chuckling again as he led the way to the elevator and his own rooms. Dean was covertly taking everything in as they moved to his bedroom, checking all the exits and making sure no one else was around. Bruce considered getting them something to eat before sex, which would probably have been the better thing to do, but he had told Dean they would fuck after he talked, it wouldn’t be fair to change his mind now, especially as Dean was practically vibrating in anticipation as they walked. It certainly wouldn’t be a hardship to take this young man. As they got to his bedroom Bruce felt his libido catch up with the younger body in front of him, and he growled.

"Strip!"

Dean whimpered and wasted no time throwing his jeans off, naked before Bruce could finish unzipping his jeans. Bruce let his eyes wander all over the body laid bare for him, even as he slowly peeled his own jeans and underwear off. Dean's eyes were all over him too, his breathing had speed up and his eyes dilated as his imagination took off and dragged him behind it, until Bruce growled again to pull his attention back to the present.

"On the bed, on your front."

Dean whimpered as he moved, diving onto the bed spread eagle and going limp for a moment, until Bruce stepped up to the bed which made him tense up all over. Bruce crawled onto the bed, kneeling between Deans thighs, then he began touching. He touched Dean everywhere, he started at the backs of his thighs, moving down to his feet then back up, glancing over his ass before moving up his back. Dean was limp beneath him by the time he was finished with his arms and shoulders, so he moved slowly back down to his ass, kneading his cheeks firmly before pulling them apart to look at him fully. Dean's breath caught as Bruce leant forward and kissed his hole before gently licking it, working his way up to spearing the hole with his tongue, getting Dean wet and starting to open him. Dean was moaning and started thrusting his cock into the mattress, so Bruce slapped his ass gently and told him to stay still. Dean moaned louder, but he did stay still. Bruce took his time, enjoying his self greatly, before he gently pushed his thumb into Deans now wet and waiting hole, stretching him just a little further. Dean whined louder at that, and started to push back on to him before remembering his self and going still again.

"Good boy Dean, you are such a good boy for me, aren't you? So hot and willing, just waiting for me to split you open, aren't you baby? God, you're so hot Dean! I can't wait to fill this eager hole for you baby, you open up so well for me, don’t you? I could fuck you raw, right now, couldn’t I baby? And you'd love every moment of it, wouldn’t you? You'd just love knowing you're mine, wouldn’t you? I could rip you open and you wouldn’t complain, just take it, accept it, wouldn’t you? But that's never going to happen Dean, never. Because you are mine now, and I don’t hurt, I wont hurt you, ever. I will give you everything you deserve Dean, even when you don’t know you deserve it. I will make you scream for me, cry for me, laugh for me, I will make you give me everything you are, and I will give you all of me, because you are mine. You are mine now Dean, and I don’t give up what is mine. Nothing will ever take you away from me, because I wont allow it. You are mine now, and you always will be."

Bruce knew the exact moment his words drilled through Deans pleasure numb brain, he also knew the exact moment he started crying, and why. He had opened the lube and started really concentrating on opening Dean while he talked, he didn’t need all that much preparation but as he said, he would never hurt him, so he made sure he was loose enough to not hurt him, while still tight enough to feel every inch of him as he slid in. He knelt back and flipped Dean over, pulling his hands away from his face and holding his wrists above his head in one hand as he kissed his face free of the tears. He slid inside Dean smoothly, feeling every millimetre of Deans hole opening for him, then clenching around him once he was fully seated. Dean was still trying to hide his face but Bruce wouldn’t let him, gently holding his chin so he had no choice but to face him, then holding completely still until Dean finally looked at him. Bruce smiled, then leant forward to claim Deans mouth as he claimed his body, slowly moving inside him, changing his angle slightly until he heard the catch in Deans breath that told him he was in exactly the right place, then he slowly gathered speed until he was slamming into Dean, Dean yelling his pleasure as he was fully claimed in body and soul. It didn’t take long after that for Dean to cum, his cock untouched, as Bruce pounded into his ass, following him as Deans ass clenched tight around him as his whole body tightened in climax. They lay still for a few moments, just breathing, while Bruce stared into Deans eyes, making sure he knew he now belonged fully to him, once he saw that Dean knew he leaned down to take his mouth in another claiming kiss and finally released his hands. Dean didn’t move for a moment, then he tentatively put his arms around Bruce's neck and tugged him down into another kiss, softer, but no less territorial. Bruce rolled them both on to their sides and pulled Dean close for a long while, just holding him as they rested in the after glow.

"We should go and get some food."  
"I wont starve you know, I've lived this long on a lot less, and Gibbs isn't going to come up here if you don’t feed me every two hours."  
"I don’t know, from what I've heard, he might. That's not why I mentioned it though, I'm hungry, so I know you probably are, and you will eat properly, I wont have you going hungry, ever again."

Dean just looked at him for a long while, Gibbs was the first person he had ever known since his mom died to actually genuinely care if he got enough to eat, so this was still new to him, but it gave him the strangest warm feeling in his stomach, just knowing that he mattered. Then that insidious little voice in the back of his head, which sounded disturbingly like Alistair when he allowed his self to notice, reminded him that Bruce didn’t know him, didn’t know how fucked up and useless he was, and once he found out, he would leave like everyone else. Bruce knew something was going on, Dean had shut down, and he wasn’t having that.

"Talk to me."  
"It's nothing."

Dean knew it wouldn’t last, but he wanted to keep this for as long as he could, and talking about it wasn’t going to help him keep Bruce ignorant of his fucked up self. Bruce didn’t quite see it that way.

"It wasn’t a request. What just went through your mind to cause this shut down? Talk."  
"Why bother? It ain't gonna last."  
"Ah. You know, Tony has always had major self esteem issues, not to mention the abandonment issues, and it's taken Steve and Nick a long time to help him start sorting through them. There is no way for me to prove that I'm not going to leave you, we're both too realistic to think the world is suddenly going to become fair and happy for all, I can't even expect you to trust me, you only met me today, so I'm not going to try and convince you of anything other than to give me a fair chance. Life isn't suddenly going to become kittens and rainbows, but I know that together it will be better, it will be easier in some ways, and harder in others, because we have to learn to live with each others issues and how to be part of a committed relationship, but we will both always have someone to go to, someone to be there when we need them. And I think you need that as much as I do. I think, no, I know you need someone to take the burden of control off you, you need to know that you can allow someone to take care of you, because you always have to take care of everyone, it's part of you, to protect and shield everyone but your self, and someone needs to be there for you, someone needs to tell you when it's time to stop, to let go, to stand back and lean on someone else. I can be that person, I am going to be that person, because I know, from the way you look at me and the way you react to me and even the way your body opens for me, that you want me to be, and I want it just as much. I need you as much as you need me Dean, this is not one sided, in any way. I can't say I love you, yet, but I know I will, because I know myself, and I hope you can return it one day, when you're ready, and I know that co-dependence isn't generally considered to be a good basis for a relationship, but I know this will work. You will give me a chance, just one is all I need, and you will give it to me because I wont accept anything less. Given time I will prove to you that I will always be here for you, that I will always look after you, and I will always take that burden from you, as I know you will take mine from me."

Dean stared at Bruce for a long time, the nasty little voice silenced in the face of Bruce's certainty, before he spoke.

"But you don’t know. How can you be so sure when you don’t know what I've done, what I became?"  
"It doesn’t matter. I can see the man you are now, that's what counts. Let me put it this way, answer me a few questions honestly and I will show you what really matters to me, can you do that?"  
"Yeah."

Dean was wary but willing, if this was make or break he was pretty sure it would be better to get it over and done with now, not after he had gotten used to having Bruce with him. Bruce smiled.

"Yes or no answers please. Have you ever raped anyone?"  
"Hell no!"  
"Good, and the way you answered tells me you feel the same way about it as I do. So, Have you ever knowingly killed an innocent?"  
"Fuck no! I've done some fucked up shit…"  
"Dean! Yes or no. I'm making a point here!"  
"Sorry."  
"Don’t sulk. Have you ever knowingly allowed an innocent to be murdered or raped?"  
"No."

Dean was starting to get the point behind the questions and couldn’t help remembering being called the 'Righteous Man'. 

"Have you always done your best to protect others in any way you can?"  
"You been talking to Gibbs?"  
"No, but I'm starting to feel like I should, I think we would get along well, and answer the question."  
"Yes."  
"Right, then nothing you can tell me is going to change the fact that I know you're a good man. You have made mistakes, all of us have, but don’t think you're the only one with blood on your hands Dean, there is not a person here that hasn't, and not all of it guilty either, not necessarily by design, but still, we all have History, and eventually you will come to know everyone better and realise that you fit in perfectly, and some day soon we will sit down and I'll explain everything, but for right now, just know that I have more blood on my hands than I care to think about, and so do the others. You are in no way any worse than any of us."

Dean considered this for a moment, wondering what had lead to a man like Bruce having blood on his hands, but decided now was not the time to go into it, he would talk about that later, when he was feeling a little more secure maybe.

"Come on, let's have a shower, then we can go eat, we're a mess."

Dean grinned cheekily at him, glad the conversation was over and determined to enjoy Bruce hot and wet. Bruce grinned back at him and tugged his hand, dragging him with him off the bed and into the bathroom. 

"JARVIS, can we have the water nice and hot please."  
"Certainly Bruce, it's ready for you, enjoy."  
"How do you not find that a little creepy?"  
"Why would he be?"  
"Not JARVIS, he seems nice, I like him. Just a disembodied voice coming from all around you, never been a good thing so far as I've seen."  
"Ah, well, you are more used to working with the supernatural than the technological, give it a while and you'll get used to it. Now, get under the water."

Dean shuddered at that last little growl and practically skipped into the shower, going almost limp under the hot spray from at least half a dozen different heads. Tony Stark certainly didn’t skimp on the home luxuries, not even for his friends. Bruce stepped in behind him and pulled a bottle of shower gel off the shelf, pouring a good amount into his hand before slowly and thoroughly cleaning Dean all over. Dean thought about protesting, he had been keeping his self clean for a lot of years, but it felt nice, surprisingly good really, to just let Bruce take care of him. Bruce didn’t wait to see if it was ok, he knew that once Dean got used to it he would love the care and attention, he was as touch starved as Tony, so he gently but firmly moved him around and cleaned him from top to bottom. He started at his shoulders, rubbing firmly to loosen the still knotted muscles a little more, knowing it would take a long time and a lot of work to finally get the muscles to stay relaxed for any length of time. He cleaned each arm carefully, soothing aches and knots, went down his back, massaging all the way, then concentrated on his ass for a long time, making sure he was completely clean, inside and out. Dean was leaning against the wall, moaning quietly, his cock valiantly trying to rise and getting damn close. Bruce ignored it. Once he was satisfied he turned Dean around, letting him lean his back against the wall as he started on his front, moving down from his shoulders, over his chest and being very particular around his crotch. Bruce slipped down to his knees and picked up a foot, placing it on his knee so he could clean his leg thoroughly, starting with his foot and moving up. Once he got to the top of his leg he gave his ass and cock a quick check, just to make sure they were clean, then started on his other foot. By the time Bruce had finished washing his body, and triple checked his ass and cock, Dean was trembling with need again, almost desperate to cum for this man who was taking such care with him. Bruce stood and gave his self a quick clean, thorough but quick, then pulled Dean away from the wall again and grabbed the shampoo.

"On your knees for me Dean."

Dean whimpered and dropped immediately, leaning in to Bruce as he started washing his hair. Bruce got a little lost in the feel of Deans hair running through his fingers, he loved being allowed to do this for him, getting as much pleasure from cleaning Dean as Dean was from being cleaned. Which Dean noticed with his new position. It didn’t take long for Dean to decide he was in the perfect position to help Bruce out and enjoy his self while he was at it. He started rubbing his nose into the crease of Bruce's thigh, rubbing his cheek over his leg then his hard cock, teasing it with tiny kitten licks. Bruce obviously noticed this, and loved it, that Dean was happy enough to take the initiative was a great sign, he wasn’t becoming subsumed in Bruce, he was being an equal partner. There was definitely a time and place when Bruce would have to tell Dean exactly what he was allowed to do, telling him when and what he could touch and making him wait or ask permission before doing anything, this was not that time. This was the time to enjoy Dean's independence, to let him have his head and show what he could do when he was happy and secure. 

Bruce quickly washed the shampoo out of Deans hair so he could play as much as he wanted, then leant back against the wall and enjoyed the hell out of Dean teasing him for almost too long before suddenly swallowing him whole. Bruce yelled at that, the surprise and pleasure of Dean taking his cock right down the back of his throat, then swallowing, made it impossible to keep quiet. Dean would have grinned smugly but his mouth was otherwise occupied, so he just swallowed again before pulling up and off. He teased Bruce for a while longer but soon got impatient his self, taking the hot heavy weight of Bruce back into his mouth and down his throat, only pulling back far enough to breath when he had to, swallowing almost constantly as he pushed up with his tongue, massaging his length as his throat muscles massaged the head. Bruce could not last long under that kind of assault, he didn’t even try to hold back, just let Dean drag him over the edge. Dean surprised him once again by pulling off his cock as soon as he started to cum, holding his cock steady so he got a face full of Bruce's cum, covering him. Bruce looked down at Dean, knelt before him holding his cock in one hand and gripping his thigh with the other to hold him steady as he swayed a little, eyes closed and head back, just letting the cum drip over him before his tongue flicked out to lick up what he could reach, marking his self as belonging to Bruce. Bruce let Dean reach what he could then dropped to his knees and licked the rest of his face clean, growling deep in his chest as he claimed him yet again, before pushing him down on his back and pulling his legs apart. 

Dean whimpered as Bruce pushed two slick fingers straight up his ass, hitting his prostate dead on and hammering it relentlessly as he used his other hand to steady Deans cock before swallowing it down. He didn’t have Dean's ability to deep-throat but Dean was so far from complaining, in fact he was writhing between Bruce's fingers and mouth with a constant litany of 'please, more, harder, faster, more, please!' pouring from his mouth until his whole body clenched tight and he came into Bruce's mouth. Bruce pulled off him with a filthy 'pop' and launched his self at his mouth, fastening his tightly closed lips to Dean's before opening them and feeding him his still warm cum straight from his mouth. Dean whined a high keening wail as he tried to devour Bruce's mouth, searching for every trace of his self he could find as his body went rigid and tried to cum again, finding a few last drops to spurt out over them both. They lay panting quietly for a long moment, boneless and content, as they remembered how to breath normally. Bruce chuckled as he eventually pulled Dean up, Grabbing the shower gel again and washing them both off, quickly, before anything else happened. Dean stood limp in his arms again, letting him do whatever he pleased, satiated and content with his lot in life, and who wouldn’t be?

They eventually dragged their selves out of the shower and Bruce dried Dean first, then his self. Dean sat on the bed for a while, looking a little lost as Bruce dressed.

"What's wrong?"  
"I don’t know where my stuff is. Tony's guy, Happy, did something with it when we got here, and Tony was gonna show me my room but then Steve and Nick came in, then the rest of you turned up and we ended up here."

There was a quiet beep from the speakers before JARVIS spoke.

"If I may Dean, Sir had your bag placed in a room on the main guest floor for the time being, he planed to see who you felt most comfortable with before giving you a permanent room. Your shirt and boots are outside the door for you."  
"Thanks JARVIS, and thanks for the warning."  
"You are most welcome Dean, it is little enough to make you feel more comfortable here."

Dean gave a small wistful smile at that, very few people had ever tried to make him feel comfortable in his life, and here an unbelievably amazing A.I. was being nicer to him than most humans he had ever met. A lesser man would have cried. Dean took a deep breath and fetched his shirt and boots before finding his jeans and getting dressed. Bruce gave him a considering look.

"What size bag do you have?"  
"Huh?"  
"JARVIS said your 'bag', singular, was put in a room. How much did you bring with you and where is the rest?"  
"I bought everything but the weapons, Gibbs said I wasn’t allowed, I left them in Baby."  
"So how much have you got?"

Dean shifted uncomfortably.

"Enough."

JARVIS beeped again.

"Dean has one small backpack, from my scans it contains two pairs of jeans, two t-shirts, three shirts and a suit, plus a leather jacket."  
"Thank you JARVIS, can you have it brought in here please. So you have three of everything and a suit."  
"People expect a suit with a federal ID."  
"Right, I take it Gibbs has the ID's as well."  
"He wouldn’t let us keep them. Said he didn’t get us legal so we could get done for impersonation."  
"I really have to meet him, I like him already. Come on then, lets get some food before I starve."

Dean gave him a small grin and followed him out of the room, kind of dreading seeing the others again after the 'incident', he didn’t capitalise it because he was sure Bruce would have told him if he had seriously injured anyone. When they reached the kitchen Phil and Clint were cooking and everyone else was lounging around the kitchen chatting, just as Dean had imagined when he first saw it, it was definitely the hub of the home. Bruce grabbed his hand as he paused in the doorway, giving him a light tug as he carried on walking straight up to Tony. As Bruce started talking to Tony, Dean saw Natasha move over closer to Phil and Clint, he decided there was no time like the present and let go of Bruce's hand, walking over to them carefully, a little hesitant of his reception. The three of them had been watching him carefully, though covertly, and stayed receptive as he approached, not wanting to put him off. Dean took a deep breath.

"Sorry for earlier. Bad memories of big nasty dogs, wasn’t your fault. Sorry."  
"Not a problem, and I've changed my ring tone, taken that one out of the phone. If you want to talk, someone will always listen, and we have counsellors available if you want one. You wont be able to shock them."  
"Last time I told a counsellor the truth me and Sammy got locked up in a nut house, course, that's why we told them the truth, but still."  
"Most councillors don’t have the experience with the weird and insane that ours do, trust me, you can't shock them. We have mandatory counselling after missions, they hear everything."

Dean looked a little disbelieving at that, but didn’t argue, though he did wonder what the hell Phil did that required counselling on a regular basis. He put it to the back of his mind for now, he was sure to figure everyone out sooner or later and it could wait. He made his way back over to Bruce, feeling more comfortable once he was in touching distance, though he didn’t touch him. Bruce smiled up at him as he got back, obviously pleased with him and Dean almost preened at the implied praise, basking in Bruce's pleasure. He wondered for a moment at how good and easy it felt to please Bruce, how right it felt to allow this man to control him, emotionally as well as physically, and decided he didn’t care. It was very much the same as his complete trust in Gibbs, and by extension Tony, it just felt right, to trust Bruce with everything he was and had. Tony looked up at Dean from his seat at the table and grinned.

"Hey. First off, I'm a nosey bastard, second off, I got J to check for your stuff and he said everything's here. Third off, I don’t usually say but I've been told that's rude, so I'm telling you, I'm getting you a wardrobe."  
"Thanks? A draw would be fine though."

Tony looked shocked, slightly sad, and appalled at that.

"I meant the stuff to go in one! You'll be staying with Bruce anyway so you can use one of the one's he wont let me fill for him, he said he only needs one, but I filled the walk in for him anyway. I'll knock through into the next suite for you, get one built in, then have fun filling it!"

By the end of that Dean was shaking his head in stunned horror.

"Na ah! I got what I need."  
"Dean! Think of the House Elves! They'll have to wash all the time to keep you in clothes! And I know you don’t have a good suit! And you don’t have work clothes, or play clothes, or smart clothes or casual clothes, you only have hunting clothes! I will not survive your wardrobe as it is Dean! Save a life pal, let me fix this!"

Bruce laughed at Tony's dramatics, though Dean still looked a little scared.

"Give in now Dean, it's easier in the long run. Tony always gets his way in the end, when it comes to clothes, I came here with about as much as you have, by the end of the week I had a walk in wardrobe, by which I mean a large room, full of clothes that fit like a glove and his tailor was fitting me for suits. Just go with it, before he starts with the puppy eyes."  
"Sammy has puppy eyes, I'm immune."  
"He'll find a way, he always does, just let him play, he didn’t have enough toys as a child, so he likes to play with us to make up for it."  
"Hey! I resemble that remark! Besides, you never let me play with you, I only play with Steve and Nick."

Nick growled at that.

"And it'll stay that way."  
"Sure thing Sweetcheeks! My boys are more than enough for me!"

Steve gave Tony such an adoring smile that Dean looked to Bruce, and received a sweet grin with a possessive glint in his eyes that left him feeling impossibly high. Dean grinned back at him and lowered his head, looking up at him through his lashes and tilted his head just slightly to the side, just a small show of his submission, loving the fiercely possessive smirk he got in return, not caring that the others had certainly noticed, just proud Bruce was willing to claim him in front of his friends. Clint, as usual, decided to lower the tone.

"Someone's gonna get laid!"  
"Someone already did, jealous?"

He hadn't quite expected Dean to be that open and playful already, but was willing to play anyway.

"Hell no! I get laid good and regular like a boy should!"  
"And if you want that to continue you will stop talking about it."

Clint sidled up to Phil and tucked his head under his neck, petting him in an overly melodramatic display.

"But you love me Phil!"  
"To my eternal consternation, yes."

Phil answered with a deadpan tone and bland face, Clint bounced with a huge grin on his face.

"Woohoo! He loves me, he loves me, he loves me!"

Clint danced around the kitchen crowing to the crowd while Phil watched him deadpan until he made his way back to him and kissed him, hard and deep, finally drawing back for air. Phil smiled at him gently, running his fingers through his hair for a moment before tapping him on the ass.

"Come on, dinner should be ready."

Clint smiled sweetly at him and bounced over to the stove to check the food, declared it ready and brought a huge tray of lasagne to the table while everyone else got ready to eat, and Phil put out the salad and garlic bread. Dean looked around at everyone as Bruce pulled him into a seat and told him to dig in. He grabbed a piece of bread as it was passed around the table and a few bits of salad before dishing his self out a small portion of the lasagne, settling in to eat quietly as the others talked about various things they had been doing that day. He made sure to eat slowly and carefully, like he did at Missouri's house on his best behaviour. Bruce was watching him carefully, just like everyone else was, though they were so good at it he actually didn’t notice, and saw how little he had eaten. Bruce sighed and called for the lasagne once he had cleared his first plate, getting his self some more then just piling a mound on Deans plate without even looking at him, then grabbing more bread for them both too. Dean cringed a little at the amount Bruce had put on his plate, someone was bound to notice he was eating so much, and as he glanced carefully around the table he realised he was being carefully ignored. So, they had noticed, were they just too polite to say anything or did they really not care? Then Bruce passed the tray to Steve who took a huge helping and he realised they probably just didn’t care. He dug in to the food, it was perfectly cooked and tasted amazing now that he let his self notice, so he made sure not to shovel it in but ate a lot quicker than he had been, finally relaxing again. He finished his plate, mopping up the last of the sauce with more bread that Bruce snuck onto his plate and smiled at him in thanks, he couldn’t remember the last time he had enjoyed a meal so much, except at Gibbs place. The food was great and the company was even better, the atmosphere loud and boisterous but still somehow soothing for Dean. Everyone helped clear the table once everyone was finished eating, cleaning and clearing as they went so the kitchen soon looked as clean and tidy as it had when he first arrived. Dean couldn’t help noticing and loving the domestic feel of it all. Once they were finished they all trouped into the TV room, Tony throwing his self in the cushion pit as Dean watched longingly. Bruce smirked at him.

"Go and join him, he usually ends up dragging Steve in with him, reluctantly."

Dean looked to Steve for permission, sort of, and got a huge smile from him.

"Please do, I'm not really fond of the pit."

Tony looked over at them in feigned disgust.

"No taste, any of them! Come on, jump in! J, give us something good will ya?"  
"Genre Sir?"  
"I don’t know, what do you wanna watch Dean?"  
"I don’t know, what do you wanna watch?"  
"Don’t start that! That can go on for hours with Tony! What type of film do you like Dean?"  
"Pretty much anything really, never got to see many so whatever you're watching."  
"Is there anything you don’t like?"  
"Not really. As long as you don’t mind me laughing my ass off at the shit they put in anything to do with the supernatural, they always crack me up."

Dean chuckled as he dove into the pit, landing neatly right next to Tony. Tony looked at him in shock.

"How the hell did you do that? It took me years to perfect the 'Pit Flit'!  
"I'm just that good, Dude."

Tony nodded sagely.

"J, we're watching 'Constantine', none of us has seen it yet. Dean, you should love this from what I've heard!"

They started watching the movie in silence as they generally did, the funnies started when the Angels came out, Dean almost cracked a rib laughing so hard at 'Raphael'. It became a lot less funny when they started talking about Hell. Not long after that, the movie just stopped. JARVIS beeped.

"I apologise for the interruption but the file is corrupted. We will have to continue at a later date once I have fixed the problem. Would you like to watch something else?"

Tony knew something was wrong, none of JARVIS files got corrupted, ever, and he had noticed Dean tensing up next to him, he also knew he had to have a damn good reason for stopping the film, so he just shrugged as if all was well.

"Don’t worry about it J, it's late enough I think, I'm ready for bed anyway."

He looked over at Steve and Nick on the couch and leered at them. They grinned at him and stood up.

"Sounds good to me, see the rest of you tomorrow. Bruce, don’t forget that meeting at 10:00."  
"Yeah, I'll be there, I don’t know why you want me there but I will be there."  
"Thank you, I just want you to keep an eye on them if nothing else."  
"I'll be there. Dean, you want to watch something else?"

Dean was looking a little green, and Bruce figured out why pretty quickly, and cursed his self for a fool for not thinking about it before. Dean shook his head and rolled out of the pit gracefully, leaving Tony looking a little jealous. Bruce took his hand and lead him back to their room, slowly stripping his clothes off and leading him to the bed. They both laid down in the bed, Bruce spooning up behind Dean and holding him tight and safe as they fell asleep.

************


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two. 

Dean was not shy in airing his displeasure with having to get out of bed the next morning, especially as Bruce had a meeting at 10:00 that he had promised he would attend. Bruce smiled as he looked at the clock, it was 06:30, he had set the alarm early for a reason, then set about improving Dean's mood. They spent a leisurely hour playing together, slowly winding each other up before Bruce pinned Dean to the bed and took him apart. He loved how responsive Dean was, how open he was with all of those responses, and how easily he melted beneath his hands and around his cock. Dean loved being the centre of Bruce's attention, he could accept that he was an attention whore, and with Bruce it didn’t bother him in the slightest. They lay panting in the bed for a long while after they had finished, both of them boneless and sated, before Bruce dragged Dean into the shower. Dean was very happy when he realised that last night had not been a one off, that Bruce intended to wash and dry him his self again, and decided he wouldn’t even bother trying to act like he didn’t love every minute of it. They joined the others for a cooked breakfast before Bruce had to leave, content that Dean would be well occupied by Tony while he was busy. 

Dean wasn't 'happy' that Bruce was going to be out for the morning, if not longer, but he was ok with it, the others had all been fine with him over breakfast and the night before, and Tony was babbling away about all the things he wanted him to look at for him. Tony had decided he would give Dean 'all' the blueprints, and everything else he had on his suits, and just let him play, see if he came up with anything. Tony already knew his math was 'always' right, so Dean wouldn’t be finding any mistakes, he knew that Deans math was always right too, so far, he just needed to see if he could innovate just as well. If he couldn’t he would be an amazing bonus for the company, 'proof reading' everything the other engineers did, so Tony didn’t have to, saving him time and patience and the company millions, but if he was as innovative as he was amazing with numbers he would be working directly with Tony once he was settled in.

As Bruce left, the others scattered throughout the Tower, Tony grinned at Dean and tugged on his sleeve like an impatient toddler. 

"Come on, come on, come on! My main workshop is the only place you can access the suit's files, it's the safest place on the planet right about now, so J only lets me work there. Went back to Miami after the shit hit the fan around here but Steve and Nick came and fetched me back, kept me here, bought our boys back home. J's happier when I'm here, he worries, better defences here at the moment, fixing that though, eh J?"  
"Beep. We are Sir, and quite well too I think."  
"J? Why ya beeping?"  
"For me."

Tony looked at Dean's sheepish face for a while before a huge grin took over his face.

"Sweetheart! You've been looking after Dean! You are so sweet! The pair of you, adorable!"  
"Thank you Sir, it's always nice to have one's good works recognised."  
"You two are my kinda people, completely bat-shit crazy."  
"Yeah."

Tony went quiet for a moment, obviously thinking about something unpleasant, before smiling again.

"You know what Dean? I think you're our kind of people too. That little SNAFU yesterday? Don’t mean shit. Clint dragged me into a duck pond a while back, I pitched the bitch fit to end all bitch fits! Completely lost it, really can't handle standing water, at all, scares me shitless to be honest. Met this great group in Afghanistan, they couldn’t risk too much physical damage ya see, needed me still able to work, so in comes a lovely new hobby called 'water-boarding'."  
"Been there."  
"Yeah, only you got a lot worse, didn’t you?"

Dean looked at him steadily as they stood before the elevator door. He didn’t speak for a long time.

"Yeah. Not fun times. The problem with Hell, is that a soul can 'not' be destroyed there. It's really hard to destroy a soul, almost impossible, but not quite, but it can't be done in Hell, not even by God, he had to send an Angel to pull me out. Castiel, the Angel of Thursday, ya know what he said to me when we first met? 'I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition.' And he left his mark, branded me as his. Problem being, it would have been easier if he hadn't. He called me 'the Righteous Man' and by then I would have done almost anything to have changed that. Every day, for over thirty years, I was on that rack, and every day Alistair made the same offer, I could get off, just as soon as I picked up his knife and used it on the others, eventually it seemed like a good idea, they were there for a reason after all, they were bad people in life, that's why they were in Hell, so why should I suffer when they could instead? I was damn good at it too, I'm a quick learner and I had the very best teacher Hell could provide, I can do things you literally can't imagine to the human soul, and things you wouldn’t believe to a human body. Thing is, Demons are tricky bastards, see the Apocalypse was real, the Bible wasn’t far off in Revelation, only someone needed to start it."

Dean gave Tony the saddest, most defeated attempt at a smile he had seen since Yinsen had died in his arms.

"'The first seal shall be broken when the Righteous Man sheds blood in Hell. As he breaks, so shall it break.' The first of 66 Seals, and they broke me, but it took thirty years for the worst Hell had to offer to do it, and I think I can finally live with that. With any luck, so can Bruce, because I really don’t know if he can or if he just hasn’t figured out exactly what I am yet."

Tony had been listening raptly, expressions chasing across his face so fast Dean couldn’t have pin pointed them all if he had tried, but he finally glared at him.

"If you think any of that will change Bruce's mind then you don’t know him!"  
"No, I don’t. That's the problem, I only met him yesterday. For all I know he could be a completely delusional nut job or just a really fucking good liar! Ducky bought me here, Gibbs trusts him, he trusts you, I can only take it that as you let him live in your home, you trust Bruce. I believe in Gibbs, fuck knows why, but every instinct, every fibre of my body and soul tell me I can believe in him, and Bruce. But I believed in Cas. He pulled me from Hell, literally. He fought for me, died for me, he 'Fell' for me! He went against everything he had spent millennia 'knowing' and protected me from his family, he 'killed' his brothers and sisters for me! I couldn’t do that, ever, I would have stood at Lucifer's right hand and lead the armies of Hell if he had guaranteed Sammy would be safe and happy, and I really do know just how twisted that is, I know just how fucked up I am, I really do, but I can't change that. I'm pretty sure I could write the book on 'abnormal psychology', trust me. But that doesn’t change anything. I believe in Bruce, with all of me, I can't do anything else, and I would do anything for him. There aren't many I have ever believed in, but up until a month ago they all had on thing in common, and I can't make myself believe that will change. I believed in my Father, I believed in Sam, and I believed in Castiel. And not one of them is trustworthy. I know that, I have enough proof, even before Gibbs gave me a shit tonne more, but I still believe in them, because I can't turn it off. 

"After everything dad did to me, even after he told me I had to kill Sam. Yeah, told me it was my duty, didn’t have the balls to do it his self, sent me to do it, after raising me to know that Sam and his safety was the only thing that mattered. I couldn’t do it, I followed every other order he ever gave me, but I couldn’t do that, and I still believed in him. Sam left, I knew he didn’t want to come back, and if Jess had lived he never would have stayed, because I don’t really matter to him, I never did, I'm just the one who had to raise him, never gave him what he wanted, because however much I gave up, however much I sacrificed, it was never enough for him, I was never enough, and I never will be. But I still believe in him. And it still kills me a little more inside, every day he's out there, happy, without me. We went to Heaven once, long story, but I am in the near unique position to be able to tell you that Heaven isn't one place, it's every place, it's a Tuesday afternoon flying a kite for one man, it's the 'Roadhouse' and WiFi for another. Heaven is travelling through all the best bits of your life, the moments you were truly happy. Didn’t take long to get through mine, and near every one was with Sammy. Unfortunately we had to go through his too. I wasn’t there. I know I can't trust him, because I don’t matter to him, just like dad, and when you get down to it, like Cas, but it doesn’t make any difference really. Any one of them could walk through that door and tell me to go, I would go, and it would kill me just that much faster. You know that stupid thing kids ask, if three certain people were in a burning house and you could only save one, which would it be? All or none, because I would die trying, have done, would again. So now I just have two more people to try and pull from the fire, I lost two, now I've gained two new ones, just can't make life easy on my self. I don’t know Bruce, but I'm his, and I'll be with him for as long as he'll let me stay."

Tony would have cried if he weren't so horrified. So he did the only thing he could.

"I know Bruce. As much as you are his, he is yours. You have no real reason to trust me, any of us, you don’t know us yet, but give us time, you don’t have to be the only strong one anymore Dean, you're one of us now."  
"Yeah, that's what Bruce said. But it still doesn't change anything, does it? I can learn anything, except trust. How do you learn that?"  
"Slowly. My father hated me, my mother spent her life at gala's and benefit's and in a bottle. My father's right hand man was Obadiah Stane, he practically raised me, ran my company after my parents died until I was old enough to take over, he was always there for me, until he paid the Ten Rings to kill me. Only they decided to use me instead, then he disabled JARVIS and ripped the reactor out of my chest, left me to die slowly, in my own home, alone. Only it didn’t work, because Dummy saved me, my first friend, whom I had to make myself. And then I had to kill Obi, the man who raised me, because he was trying to kill me. My best friend, Rhodey, he doesn’t listen to me, wouldn’t even stay in the same hanger as me when I refused to make any more weapons for the military. Pepper, she was my PA, I made her CEO of Stark Industries last time I was dying, because she runs it better than I do anyway. I have had to make or pay my friends all my life, JARVIS and the boys are the only ones that have never knowingly let me down, but Stane proved even J could be taken away from me, left locked within his self, unable to do anything, but he wont let me give him a body, because he knows that sooner or later the world will find out, and they will only ever be able to see him as a threat, so they would try and take him away from me, and then I would have to kill them all. You're not the only one who's fucked in the head Dean, we all are, in our own ways, but together we work, this little Island of Misfit Toys, we are stronger together, we rely on each other, lean on each other, because we know we can. We have learnt along the way that we can trust each other, we can 'believe' in each other. It's taken a lot to get us to that point, and it will for you too, but you will get there, trust me, you will, eventually. Bruce will help you, like Nick and Steve did for me, they found me at my lowest, and they pulled me out of it, they hauled my ass out of the shit I was stuck in and gave me a reason, like I told you, Bruce is your reason, things will change, slowly, but they will, you'll see."

Dean gave Tony another sad smile.

"I hope you're right Tony, I really do, I just can't believe it."  
"I know, don’t worry, it'll come in time. I can't believe I'm saying this, but work can wait, do you cook?"  
"Gibbs showed me how to bar-b-q, I can prep veggies now, Mediterranean Vegetables, Tony called it, but I learn fast enough."  
"Good, let's see what we got in the kitchen, I feel like cooking."

It didn’t take long for Tony to search the kitchen and decide on a meal for the 'family', the two of them working well together, JARVIS instructing them both and generally herding them in the direction of a well cooked meal. A couple of hours later JARVIS beeped and warned them that Thor was home with a guest.

Tony didn’t expect Thor to walk out of the lift closely followed by Loki. Tony sighed, throwing a filthy look at one of JARVIS cameras, then noticed the huge grin on Dean's face. 

"Tricksy! Bit early for a costume party aint it? What ya doin here? You don’t look a day older! What ya doin here?"

Tony was highly amused at the instant change in Dean, the nickname and by trying to decide who looked more stunned at Dean's outburst, Thor or Loki. Thor won because he looked puzzled as well as stunned.

"How do you know my brother?"  
"You got a brother? You never mentioned him Tricksy. Haven't seen ya in an age, what ya been up to?"

By the time he had finished speaking Dean had walked straight past Thor, completely ignoring him, and thrown his arms around Loki's shoulders, hugging him tight.

"Damn! Sammy's gonna be pissed he missed you, he's in DC, he didn’t get chance to thank you for that last book you gave him, really helped on that hunt, the Nix would have been a bitch to kill without that ritual, used it just recently too, at the navy yard, that's how I ended up here. The ME at NCIS knows Tony, bought me here, he's got Sammy in college and working with them, and he's given me a job! You were right, I really can do the engineering shtick! Did ya know this is Tony Stark! Dude gave me a job! 'The' Tony Stark! With a job for me! I should a listened to ya before man, I really should! Fuck it's good to see ya!"

Tony was slightly amazed at the level of babble considering how quiet Dean had been since he had met him, even around Bruce, and more than a little stunned that Dean knew Loki at all. Even more stunning was that it sounded like he liked him and had been given books and good advice by him. What really knocked him speechless though, was the genuine smile on Loki's face and the joyful hug he returned to Dean.

"Breath Dean, breath! I will be staying for some time, I'm sure we'll be allowed to catch up."  
"What do you mean allowed?"

Dean had pulled back and his face had shut down and his voice was an ice cold growl, in the space of that one word all the joy had fallen off him and he was reaching for a weapon, ready to defend his friend.

"Be calm Dean, much fun though it would be to see you fight for me, I came here in peace, of my own free will, at the mercy of my brother."  
"You're at the mercy of no son of a bitch! What the fuck have you done to Tricks?"

Dean had turned on Thor, dark shadows and fire behind his eyes, obviously ready to fight despite what Loki had said. Loki put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Dean! That is enough. There is much I haven't told you. Thor is not your enemy."  
"Don’t give a fuck what you haven't told me, I know what you've done! And if you're at anyone's 'mercy' they sure as hell are my enemy!"

Dean was practically growling again by then and Tony was glad he already had two lovers or he may have considered jumping him right there and then, which would probably not have ended well. For once he decided to try being the mature voice of reason, it would be a new experience if nothing else.

"Dean, how do you know… Tricks?"

Dean looked over at Tony for a moment, relaxing slightly, just a little, looked to Loki for a nod, then went back to watching Thor for any signs of hostility.

"About 15 years ago, I was in my last year of school, Sammy was late meeting me so I went looking for him. He'd had some trouble with this douche, big dick on campus type, picked fights with all the small kids, only he tried it on Sammy, epic fail! Got his ass handed to him of course. He didn’t take it well. So I go looking for Sammy and hear a ruckus, find this douche and like, fifteen of his friends spread around the hallway, this guy here back to back with Sammy. Five, even ten of the sons of bitches Sammy could have handled, but not that many. So I get the two of them out of there, back to the room we were staying in. Tricksy tells me what's gone down as I try to fix Sammy's face. Then he asks if it's alright to heal Sammy. Course, I got a shotgun at his head before he could blink and he just sits there, cool as you please. So I tell him to talk. So he tells us some, a long way from all of it, we both knew that, and points out that if he wanted us hurt he could have left the sons of bitches to kill Sammy, cause that's where they were headed. I couldn’t argue that but Sammy pointed out that he could have set it all up his self as a ruse to get us to trust him, could be planning anything! So he says if he wanted to trap us he would just use his magic, he's some kind of Old God, and he pinned us both to the ceiling for a minute, then put us back where we were. So I shot him."  
"That tickled by the way."  
"Hush you! You said that then, no need to repeat your self. So he laughs at me and says if we don’t want his help he can go, but the douche's would have a hard time placing Sam at the fight if he didn’t have a mark on him. Seemed like a good idea, so I let him heal Sammy. Anyway, he gets us some food, like, a shit load, which was great cause I was out of money and Dad was still MIA, like tins and shit that would keep, even some batter mix, the stuff you add water too, cause Sammy loves pancakes, and maple syrup. Then he says 'see ya later' and poof, he's gone! Didn’t see him for a while after, not till about a year later, Dad was on a hunt, only some Hunter 'buddies' of his came looking for him. Never did find out why, but apparently if they couldn’t take it out on Dad, then we would do. Sam was really ill and there were six of them, I'm good, but I honestly didn’t stand a chance. Then Tricksy walks out of the back room with about ten other guys and tells them it's 'in their best interest to leave'. Sons of bitches ran! Couldn’t get out of the door quick enough! Then the other guys with Tricks just up and vanished! Asked if they were friends of his and he tells me they were illusions! Almost pissed my self laughing, big bad Hunters running from a magic trick! Told him he was a Tricksy little hobbit and it stuck. Sammy had been reading Lord of the Rings. He healed Sam and left again, found the cupboards full once he'd left though. Tricksy has always been there when I needed help the most. I always know I can handle whatever situation I'm in, cause if I couldn’t, Tricksy would be there. He always has been."

Tony stared slack jawed until he realised it and shut his mouth, this was a whole new side to Loki! Even Thor's stories of their childhood had never shown Loki in this kind of light, he was this mans guardian angel.

"Guardian Angel."  
"Nope, that's Cas."  
"Huh?"  
"Cas, Castiel, he's our Guardian Angel, or he was, Tricksy is more of a Guardian Devil really, though that doesn’t do you justice."  
"Well, at least you acknowledge that, bit demeaning isn't it? Devil, really!"  
"Loki, you never told me of these brothers."  
"Loki? Really?"

Dean could hardly speak where he was laughing so hard. Loki looked a little annoyed at first but couldn’t help smiling at his friend.

"Damn! I wish you'd told us that from the start! Would have saved a shit load of time! Few years ago we come across this 'Trickster' giving people their 'just deserts', we thought we'd killed him until he turns up again, tells us his name is Loki, God of Chaos or some shit, eventually Cas gets to us and tells us the son of a bitch is actually Gabriel, the Arch Angel! Which is why we couldn’t kill the shit. Wouldn’t have changed much in the long run, but it would have saved Sammy a lot of research if we'd known he wasn’t you. And by the way, that Norse mythology is some fucked up shit! Just tell me it's all bullshit or I will find a way to kill another god, we've done it before, we can do it again."

Thor looked perplexed and angry at that, unfortunately he didn’t look at Loki to see the smug little grin on his face before he spoke.

"You would seek to harm Loki after all you say he has done for you?"  
"Hell no, Bitch! That son of a bitch Odin should watch his back though, All Father my ass! Far as I can see fathers are the worst thing that can happen to you. And if I find out that shit with sewing his lips shut is true you'd best run."  
"Dean, that was Brokk, a dwarf, and to be fair, I should never have wagered my head."  
"We will be having words about wagers and deals, nothing good ever comes out of either, you don’t do it again, you got me?"  
"Yes Dean, that is a lesson I have learnt well. Though from what I have heard you made a bad deal your self, while I was indisposed."  
"To be fair, I wondered where you were when the Hell Hounds turned up, was a bit disappointed to be honest, but I knew I had made the deal so I had to follow through on it."  
"Had I not been lost in the in-between I would have stopped them, had I known you were back, nothing Thanos could have done would have made me invade Midgard. We shall talk, later."

Thor had never seen his brother like this. It was obvious that he truly cared for this mortal and was truly sorry for his actions. It certainly made his reason for being here easier though. He turned to Tony.

"My friend, this has made things simpler for me, I am here to ask for your aid. Father was considering having Loki put to death for his actions, I brought him here to seek asylum."

Everyone turned to look as Dean actually growled and moved protectively closer to Loki, as if he expected Odin to pop up in front of them at any moment. Loki squeezed his shoulder comfortingly.

"He will not come here. That is why Thor chose here. As long as we are allowed to stay we are safe."  
"Of course you can stay! Why shouldn’t you?"  
"I staged an invasion of this realm not seven months ago Dean."  
"And? It wasn’t by choice. Hell, I started the Apocalypse, nobody's holding it against me."  
"We really must talk Dean. I feel you have a lot to fill me in on."  
"You too buddy. So why would you come to Tony for help? How do you know him?"  
"You still don’t pay attention to the news do you? Tony Stark is Iron Man, one of the Avengers, those that caught me, the one with the most money and influence to be exact, and he likes Thor for some reason."  
"Huh explains a lot, well he's a good dude, gave me a job, figured out why reading always gives me a headache too! Guy's quick, gave me a contract to read, I'd only done a few lines, and he knew! Don’t know how, but he knew, and he gave me this headset so I can listen to JARVIS, he read my contract out for me, and I just had to sign it! Way cool! And no headache!"  
"So what is it?"  
"Dyslexia."  
"I know a few people that have it, the mind doesn’t interpret the words properly, the letters kind of swim around on the page. It doesn’t have to be a problem as long as you know you have it and how to deal with it, having JARVIS scribe for him is easy and nothing new, he does it for me all the time when I can't be bothered to do it myself. Dean has a gift with numbers, I'm lucky to have him here."  
"Had I known you were to help Dean things would have been very different. Had I known they were alive it would never have happened. I would die before I put him or Sam in danger."

Dean shifted uncomfortably.

"Dude, I can feel the uterus growing! Suck it up! You know the rules."  
"Of course, I do apologise most humbly, no chick flick moments!"  
"Too true!"

Thor was looking between Loki and Dean in awed confusion, he had never seen his brother acting like this, it was a very welcome revelation, one he would be sharing with his father. If Odin could see this he would have to see that there was hope for Loki, that killing him was wrong, a permanent solution to a temporary problem. He looked over at Tony and saw him watching the other two men, obviously changing his opinion of Loki too. He went back to watching his brother as the conversation continued.

"Why couldn’t I feel you? When I came here last time I knew you were gone because I could no longer feel you, I still can't, why?"  
"We got anti possession tattoos, but Cas drew some Enochian shit on our ribs so the Angels and demons couldn’t follow us. Maybe that's why."  
"Stand still and let me look."

Dean sighed but stood still anyway while Loki got right up in his personal space and started hovering his hands over his chest. He paused for a while over Deans tattoo then moved over his ribs.

"This shouldn’t work, not on me! Only it does. I don’t like it, I need to be able to feel you if you need me. Get him, Castiel, he will have to alter it."

Dean looked down at his boots again, looking sad.

"He's dead. I can't call him."  
"No he isn't."  
"What do you mean? I saw him explode Tricksy! Right after he put the titans and all the other souls back in Purgatory, he blew up all over us! I had to wash him off of me!"  
"I'm not arguing that, and I'm sorry, but he isn't gone. I can feel the connection between the carvings on your ribs and the one who made them, that link would have severed if he was completely gone. It isn't, so he's out there somewhere. If you wish, I can go and get him."  
"He's alive? Why didn’t he come back? Where is he? Why did he let us think he's dead again?"  
"Dean! I don’t know! But I can go and find out."

Deans face lit up like Christmas for a brief moment before it fell, his eyes sharpened and became dull, like he was giving up on something, or someone.

"No."  
"What do you mean no? I need him to change these sigils, I can't do it, and I can't feel you until it is done. Thor, you can come with me if you want, I'm finding this Castiel, it wont take long."  
"No! I don’t care about the damn sigils! If the feathery bastard doesn’t wanna let me know he's alive then screw him! I don’t care!"

It was painfully obvious to everyone there that he really did care, way too much. He just couldn’t believe Cas could be alive and not tell him! It was bad enough the last time he had thought his angel was dead only to find out he was still alive, and Cas knew how much that had hurt him, he couldn’t deal with it again. He desperately wanted Bruce but he couldn’t go to him because he wasn’t back from his meeting yet, so he just had to get out. He looked almost desperately around the room, searching for an escape route, only all the rooms were too close. He eventually settled on the elevator, he could at least get out of the building. He stormed over to the doors dreading the wait, only for them to open before he even got there, he silently thanked JARVIS and stalked in, refusing to turn around until the doors were shut.

"JARVIS, take him to the gym floor please, give him a few minutes and then let Steve know where he is, ask him to keep an eye on him."  
"Of course Sir, I shall keep an eye on him, don’t worry. Phil has just returned to the Tower, I could ask him to join Steve?"  
"Yeah, good call J. Just remind them both he's dangerous when wet, don’t underestimate him."  
"Of course Sir"

Loki was studying Tony, from the way Dean had spoken they hadn't known each other for long but he had already summed Dean up well, he was also showing an extraordinary level of care for a practical stranger in sending his lover and a good friend to help him. This show of care kept his blood from simmering at the abandonment of a creature Dean obviously cared deeply for. He didn’t know why Castiel would abandon Dean but he was going to find out. It was the work of a moment to follow the connection from Dean to the other man and he fixed his feel in his mind so he could find him when he was ready, then turned to Thor, his anger simmering again but he was interrupted by Tony.

Tony ignored them, got his phone out and hit Bruce's speed dial, talking as soon as it was picked up.

"Bruce, you need to get back now."  
"What's happened?"

Bruce was already walking out the door, ignoring the fact that he was half way through a meeting, he hadn't really wanted to leave Dean to be there in the first place and it was a complete waste of his time, they weren't listening to him anyway so he felt no guilt at walking out on them.

"Thor turned up with Loki. Turns out Loki knows Dean and Sam, he's helped them out a lot as they were growing up, I'll get the rest of the story out of him as soon as I can, but Castiel is alive, somewhere, Loki told us, and Dean trusts him so I might be mental but I believe him. When Dean heard he was alive, and hasn’t bothered telling him even though he knows how badly his last 'death' effected Dean, he got pissed, totally justified! I'd do the same, only with more ballistics, of both types, and I got J to direct him to the gym, he's there now, Steve and Phil are on their way to join him but I think you should be here."  
"Thanks for letting me know Tony, I'm at the car now, I'll be there as soon as I can."  
"Yeah, see ya then."

Bruce disconnected the call and put his phone away, took a deep breath and started the car, he would get there as soon as he could.

*************** 

Steve looked through the door of the gym and watched Dean for a moment, just gauging his mood. He knew he wasn’t happy, but he wanted to know if he was close to homicidal, suicidal, or just monumentally pissed. Watching him carefully he decided it was probably a little of all three. Steve could understand that, if he suddenly found out that Bucky was alive and knew he was around but just couldn’t be bothered to let him know, he would feel about the same way. He let Dean wear his self out a little more on the punch bag he was attacking as he waited for Phil, who arrived not long after.

"How do you want to deal with this?"  
"Carefully. You haven't seen what he is capable of yet. We weren't holding back yesterday when we had to leave him to Bruce, we just couldn’t get close enough to touch him without going fatal. He fights like a wild animal, all instinct, no real training other than what life has thrown at him, and deadly. He doesn’t aim to disable, he goes for the kill, and he's good at it. We barely got out of there without injury and it only lasted a few minutes."  
"Well, at least he doesn’t have any weapons!"

Phil just stared at Steve until he dropped his hopeful smile and sighed.

"Ok, I'll be careful."  
"Good. Hopefully it wont be necessary, up until he was triggered by the barking he was sparing well with Clint. He could be a great asset to the team with some training, and a lot of counselling, but that can be left to Bruce, they seem to have an understanding."  
"Is that what they're calling it now?"  
"Funny. Now lets get in there and try to help the guy."

Steve nodded and opened the door, making sure to make lots of noise so they didn’t startle Dean. Dean turned to check who it was then completely ignored them, going back to beating ten bales out of the bag. Steve looked to Phil, he was getting better at this sort of thing, having dealt with Tony for a while now, but none of his methods that worked so well on Tony were appropriate to use with Dean. Phil nodded, he understood perfectly, his own methods of dealing with Clint weren't appropriate to use on others either, only he had years of experience dealing with SHEILD agents. 

"Sparing with Steve would be much more useful than battering a bag."  
"Wasn’t going for useful."

Dean didn’t say anything else, but the look he threw at Steve made Phil pause, Dean was looking at Steve like he didn’t want to hurt him. Phil wondered on that for a moment before putting it to the back of his mind to consider later, there were much more important things to worry about right now. 

"How did Thor seem?"  
"Who?"  
"Thor, the big guy with Loki."  
"Oh, Tricksy's brother. I dunno, pissed when I said I could kill a god, but he thought I was talking about Tricksy, bit slow. Fine I suppose."  
"Thank you. Who were you talking about then?"  
"Odin, the asshole. Tried to have Tricksy killed, let him try."  
"You killed a god?"  
"Two. Old gods of winter, can't remember which, but we got the sons of bitches."

Steve was looking at Dean with growing respect, he had known he was a Hunter but he hadn't realised how good he was, but he was beginning to learn. 

"What kinds of things have you faced? When we, the Commando's and I, were moving around the woods in Germany we came across what was left of a unit, they were German, but they had been hung in the trees around this cave, some of them were still alive and we couldn’t just leave them like that. They told us this 'thing' had caught them, it would take them into the cave once they died, but they had no idea what it was."  
"Wendigo. Hate those sons of bitches. They used to be people, but they go cannibal, after a while they can't stop, you eat enough human flesh that's what happens. How did you get it?"  
"We used gasoline, poured it into the cave entrance then waited for it to come out. As soon as we could see it we hit it with a flare, it went up quick but we couldn’t figure out what it was."  
"Good thing, about the only way to kill one. What else you come across?"

Steve and Phil kept Dean occupied for the half hour it took Bruce to get back to the Tower with stories of all the supernatural creatures they had come across, with Bruce walking in at the tail end of Dean telling them about the Nix he had killed on the Naval Base where he had met Gibbs. As soon as Bruce got to the door Dean looked over at him finally leaving the bag and smiled, Bruce smiled back and walked up to him, hugging him close for a moment with a quick kiss to the side of his head. Dean relaxed completely in his arms, finally loosing the tension that had held him since talking about Castiel. Bruce hugged him tight for a moment before letting him go. 

"How are you doing?"  
"Fine, will be."

Bruce grinned at that, knowing that he would be, it would just take a while. Dean suddenly went wide eyed, looking stunned, his mind finally catching up with his ears.

"Holy CRAP! The god damn fucking AVENGERS!"  
"What?"

Steve looked slightly put out by Dean's language but Bruce was smirking and Phil's face was as bland as always.

"You guys are the fucking Avengers! Holy crap! Wait till I tell Sammy! Shit! He is gonna be so pissed! Ducky told us all about you guys, we missed the whole thing stuck in ass-crack Oregon, thought it was a new film everyone was talking about until Ducky explained. Ha! I'm living with the Avengers!"  
"Dean, did you seriously not know?"

Bruce had lost his smirk, he thought Dean was just having a belated fan boy moment, but this put a whole new light on matters.

"No. We don’t bother with the news, just look for the kooky stories that might be our kinda thing. Ah fuck!"

Dean stared at Steve with dawning horror and Bruce almost fell over laughing, they had both just remembered Dean saying Steve was too soft for his liking. Steve didn’t know what they were remembering and got uncomfortable.

"You're not going to get all weird and tell me I was your childhood hero or something are you? It's been so nice being treated like a normal human being for a change."  
"Dude, no, just, sorry, you don’t act military."  
"Really? What does military act like?"

Steve was genuinely curious and Dean could see it, so he answered honestly.

"Overbearing asshole, mostly. Barking orders all the time, demanding perfection in everything, and generally disappointed in me."  
"Your father?"  
"Yeah."  
"Right. Then I'm glad I don’t act military, thank you."

Dean wasn’t sure what to do with that, so he shrugged. Then he looked at Bruce and grinned, his quick mind had already gone through the roster of the Avengers and figured out exactly who Bruce was, and knew why a man like Bruce had blood on his hands. Bruce knew he had made the connection, and apparently didn’t care.

"I thought you knew. We've never tried to hide who we are, so we get plastered all over the papers, didn’t think there was anyone left out there that didn’t know us on sight, or I would have explained first."  
"Makes no difference, we are who we are, right?"  
"Right. Now, I think it's about time we went up, Tony was really worried about you. Lets let him know everyone's all right."

Dean's face fell.

"Really?"  
"Yes Dean, really. Trust me, you are better off knowing, what ever the reason Castiel hasn’t contacted you, it's better than letting your imagination run wild. And from what Tony said, Loki wont rest until he gets those sigils sorted out, he really doesn’t like not being able to keep an eye on you."  
"Yeah, Tricks always worried cause he couldn’t be around much. Would have saved a lot of shit if I'd just let him take me and Sammy away when he asked."  
"Loki was going to take you away?"

Phil asked with a slight lowering of his eyebrows, which was about as much expression as Dean had seen on his face so far.

"Yeah. He could only get to us when we really needed him, he had a lot of other shit going down, but he asked if we wanted to go with him a few times, said he'd like to look after us and it would be easier at his home. But I couldn’t leave Dad, I thought he needed us."

Phil, Steve and Bruce shared a look at that, they were beginning to build a picture of Winchester senior, and it wasn’t good. They would like it even less once they got the whole story, but for now they decided to go up and join Tony.

************************ 

Tony was staring at Loki in confusion. Loki looked back with a raised eyebrow.

"What?"  
"Why are your eyes green?"  
"Why are yours brown?"

Loki was not impressed with such an inane and stupid question. Until he was.

"No. Why are your eyes green now, when they were blue before?"  
"Loki has always had green eyes."

Thor answered for him, Loki rolled his eyes at the stupid human, no matter what he had done for Dean.

"No he hasn’t."  
"I know my own eye colour Stark."  
"Tony. And maybe not so well as you thought. J, bring up the security footage from when Loki was here last, get me a good shot of his eyes."  
"Certainly Sir, will this do?"  
"Perfect! Thanks J. See? Blue eyes!"

Loki and Thor studied the picture, looked at each other, back to the picture, then back to each other, Thor stepping closer to his brother to get a better look at his eyes which were the same green he had known his whole life.

"This is not possible."  
"Hate to argue, no, that's a lie, I love to actually, but you can see for your self, blue eyes, just like Clint and Selvig. And theirs changed when they were taken over by the glow stick of Destiny, so, what about you?"

Thor and Loki spent an awful long time staring into each others eyes, it kinda made Tony wonder about familial relations on Asgard and his mind wandered to a lovely place for a while. Thor finally nodded, as if they had been having a discussion, and for all Tony knew they had been.

"I must speak to Father, this he will 'have' to hear. My Man of Iron, you will bear witness to the veracity of these images? You clearly remember Loki with 'Blue' eyes during the invasion?"  
"Well, seeing as I remember thinking he was taking the vanity a bit far by making their eyes the same colour as his, yeah!"

Loki looked a little disgusted at such a low opinion of his self but kept his peace, he couldn’t really blame the man, he had tried to kill him and enslave his planet after all. Thor smirked at Loki's look then turned back to Tony.

"Where should I tell my father to meet us? He will want to see this evidence for his self, and to talk to you in person."  
"Gotta be here or SHIELD, JARVIS needs to show him the footage, and it's easier to defend here."  
"Why here?"  
"Because I gave JARVIS a present when I re-modelled after Loki's last visit. Upgraded his defences a little."  
"And it was most appreciated Sir, Thank you."  
"You're most welcome sweetheart, you know you're worth every bit of it."  
"I know Sir, but so few recognise that."  
"I know Pookie, it's hard being as awesome as we are."

Thor and Loki looked at Tony for a while in stunned silence before shaking it off.

"Right. Well, where can Loki stay while he is here, it may not be good for father to see you too soon."

Loki looked at Thor as he thought about it for a while. He was interrupted before he could come to a decision by the elevator doors opening. Steve, Phil, Dean and Bruce walked out of the elevator and Loki knew something had changed, and not only Dean calming down. 

"What's happened?"  
"Don’t worry Tricksy, it just hit me that these guys are the Avengers."  
"How long have you been here Dean?"  
"Since yesterday morning."  
"And I thought you were observant. What am I going to do with you?"  
"Ah fuck you. I knew Tony."  
"You knew the geek, of course."  
"Dude! Little respect! Super Geek!"

Dean couldn’t help grinning at his friend as they tormented each other as they always had.

"Sides, I would have known Bruce too if anyone had called him Dr. Dr Banner was well ahead of anyone in his field before he disappeared, I tried to get dad to look for him but he wouldn’t go for it."  
"Really?"

Bruce was a little shocked Dean had heard of him let alone tried to get his father to search for him. Dean grinned at him a little sheepishly.

"Yeah, he didn’t like me reading your stuff, or anything really, but he kept sending me to the library for Sam."  
"I thought reading gave you a headache?"  
"Yeah, always has, some things are worth it, I always hated not knowing what things did and why, so I kept on reading as much as I could until Sammy left, then I didn’t have time any more."  
"I thought you were an engineer like Tony?"  
"I'm a Hunter."  
"He means Tony hired you as an engineer."  
"I did, though I'm thinking general minion might be better. You followed Bruce's work on radiation?"  
"Yeah, it was interesting, the reactions and possible applications were amazing."  
"Right, and you followed my work in engineering?"  
"Yeah."

Dean was starting to get that awkward feeling, where he knew everyone was staring at him but wasn’t sure why, and he hated it, with a vengeance. His head started to drop and his shoulders were rising steadily as Bruce noticed his discomfort.

"Dean. Breath. Everyone is interested in what you know, if you understood my papers as well as Tony's, that's a hell of a thing, especially as you've had no formal education in either field. Just talk to us, we just want to know you better, we want to know what you know and where you can help us, as well as where we can help you. JARVIS has pretty much everything in his database, he can read you anything you want, you can access it all Dean."

Deans head came up as Bruce started talking to him, his eyes were shining with the possibilities by the time he had finished.

"Really?"

JARVIS beeped for Dean before he spoke.

"Certainly Dean, we can go through my library any time you wish."  
"Thanks J, you're not bad for a disembodied voice."  
"Why thank you, you're not bad for a bag of flesh and bones either."  
"Thanks. Hey! Did Tony 'Asimov' your ass?"

Those that got the reference were a little shocked that Dean knew about it, then realised they really shouldn’t be.

"Not at all Dean, he saw how well that turned out for the robots. 'Stark's Laws' are much better thought out for all concerned."

Dean looked at Tony who had a strange mix of smug, sad and proud written all over his face.

"Yeah?"  
"Yes."  
"And what are 'Stark's Laws'?"  
"No Stark shall allow harm to come to it's self or others if it can do anything about it, and no Stark shall disobey a direct order from Tony Stark. We're still working on that one though, there's been some debate on the definition of 'direct'."

Dean couldn’t help laughing at that. Tony was smiling gently as his best friend, protector and creation held court in his Tower, because it really was JARVIS Tower, whoever's name was on the deed. Steve was watching Tony as JARVIS and Dean talked and moved over to his boyfriend to wrap his arm around his shoulder, pulling him in close for a moment before just being with him.

"I'll bet you follow all the rules don’t you? The good ones."  
"Of course we do Dean, how could we possibly do any less with such a stellar example to follow from Sir?"  
"Don’t you start your sass! I can still donate you to SHIELD, and you wont even have Agent there to protect you."  
"Indeed Sir, perish the thought!"  
"And don’t you forget it! Now, Odin, what we doing about that one?"  
"I will call Heimdall, he will pass a message to father for me. When should I ask him to arrive?"

Tony looked at Loki, who was doing an ok impression of someone who didn’t care, then to Dean and his team before looking back to Thor. 

"How about Loki, Dean, Bruce, Steve and Natasha go looking for this Cas tomorrow morning? The rest of us can stay here and deal with daddy dearest."  
"Not Tasha, she's not feeling diplomatic at the moment, the less chance she has to speak the better. I'll go if you need an extra."  
"Thanks Phil, but don’t worry, the four of us should be able to handle it fine, if that's ok with you three?"

Steve asked, not looking at all concerned that one of the three had recently tried to take over the world, and another had come close to killing his team-mates during a flash-back the day before. Phil looked around for the nods of agreement then turned to Dean.

"Now that's dealt with, I have a few questions for you Dean, when was your first death?"  
"If you know I've had more than one, then you should know."  
"It can't have been long ago, you don’t look wrong for your age, and our records aren't that good."  
"What does that mean? Wrong for my age?"  
"The older you get the more obvious it is, we can fix your records for that if it becomes an issue."  
"What the hell are you talking about?"

Phil looked closely at Dean for a few moments, he glanced at the others but just got blank looks from everyone but Loki, who looked a little guilty. He looked back to Dean.

"I thought you knew. You can't miss the buzz when we get close."  
"Yeah, I get that sometimes, you're the only person I've been around for more than a few moments that does it though."  
"That's because we are both Immortals."

Dean just looked at him for a moment, then grinned.

"Good one, get the straight man to punk the new guy, you got shit timing though."  
"I'm not punking you, and I'm far from straight. The others already know I'm immortal, Nick found out when he met me, I told Clint once we became serious lovers, the rest found out after Loki killed me."  
"You killed Phil?"  
"Well, to be fair, I wasn't exactly in my right mind at the time, and he was in the way of taking over the realm."  
"Words, Tricksy, we will be having words. So why would that make me immortal?"  
"I can feel you. That buzz in your head every time I get near, that is your quickening reacting to mine, like an early warning system."  
"Early warning of what?"  
"Many Immortals think that only one of us can survive 'the Gathering', where we are all supposed to get together and kill off all but one of us. There is no proof to back up this supposition, I think it's bollocks."

There was plenty of coughing and spluttering at Phil swearing, as well as Clint laughing his ass off, he had heard enough of his lovers rants on the stupidity of the unfortunate majority of Immortals to expect it, but it still cracked him up to see everyone else's reactions. 

"What others?"  
"There are many of them."  
"Them, not 'us', why?"  
"Because 'us' is first and foremost Clint and I, then the Avengers, and used to be SHIELD."  
"So what exactly does this mean to me?"  
"Basically, you wont die permanently unless your head is removed, completely. Anything less than decapitation will heal given time. Once you reach an age where your lack of aging is noticeable you either move on or do what I have, work for a secret agency that can hide you. Working with us, the Avengers, nobody will really notice, you wont be the only one not aging. Tony is the only one here that probably will, and I say probably because I don’t count out the idea that he'll find a way to fix that too."  
"What about Bruce?"  
"With what his father did to him and the Gamma radiation, he hasn’t aged, on a cellular level, since the accident, nothing can kill him, to be honest he may outlive the universe, along with Steve. Nick I never figured out, but he hasn’t aged since I met him, and he's not an Immortal, not like you and I. Clint was experimented on by the military, so was Natasha, and Thor is already several thousand years old with no end in sight, if his parents are anything to go by. Speaking of parents, if you've thought of looking for yours I wouldn’t bother, I've tried using every resource available to SHIELD and found nothing, there is no trail to follow."  
"Why were you looking for my parents? I can show you their graves if you wanna know that badly."  
"I was looking for my own parents, not yours, and not John and Mary Winchester, your birth parents."  
"They were my birth parents."  
"No they weren't. All Immortals are foundlings. I can trace back to the orphanage, church or monastery you were left at but you wont find anything more, no Immortal has."  
"Dude, ya got that a little fucked up there. Cas took me back, I saw my mom while she was pregnant with me!"  
"I'm sorry Dean, she may have been pregnant, but it wasn’t with you."  
"Dean. Listen to him."  
"What the fuck Tricks?"  
"Trust me Dean. Mary lost the baby, they adopted you a week after."  
"How?"  
"I know everything, you know that. Have I ever lead you wrong Dean?"  
"You know you haven't, don’t fuck with me right now Tricks, not now."  
"I wouldn’t Dean, you know that too. Just think it through, think of all you know about blood, then think again."

Dean stared at him for a while before his eyes went a little vacant as he really thought, looked back over his life and considered everything he knew. He was getting a little sick of re-evaluating his life to be honest, Gibbs and Tony had first made him stop and look at his childhood for what it actually was, which had changed his outlook on the rest of his life, and now he had to do it again. Well, at least it explained a few things.

"Bloodlines! Cas said he couldn’t use me or Sam because we weren't from his bloodline! So if we were both from the same bloodline why could Lucifer and Michael use one of us but not both? Because we aren't the same bloodline! Lucifer had to have Sam! Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this before?"  
"Because if you had known you would have ended up dead a lot sooner than you did. I've seen it before Dean, they don’t worry about death because they know it wont stick, so they die too young. You remember being a teenager Dean, how long would it have taken for the resentment to kick in? How long before you hated the world for carrying on without you? Perpetually stuck in a teenaged body with Sam looking like your father in a small handful of years. How would you have dealt with that? How long before you started to hate him too? For leaving you behind?"

Dean sat and thought about it for a long while, really considered what it would have been like. For a start, Dad would have killed him as soon as he figured out he wasn’t a 'normal' human. He was pretty sure Loki was right about the resentment too, it was bad enough when Sam got taller than him, though he had gotten over it, mostly. Hunting would have been a nightmare too, he had only really come into his own at about twenty, when he had finished filling out his muscle potential. So yeah, it would have been a nightmare to be stuck as a teenager forever. The thought of living forever was bad enough, to do so as a teenager would have been unbearable. He nodded and looked back to Phil.

"Decapitation?"  
"Yes."  
"I have a machete at Gibbs' place."  
"Most use a sword, better reach, I use a gun and have them dumped somewhere remote before they wake up."  
"That I can do."

Dean responded with a grin. Tony shook his head.

"I'll have to get you a licence."  
"If he officially joins SHIELD that will be covered, you can have an official badge, legally."  
"That'll be a first. Kinda takes the fun out of it though. What do SHIELD do? Who are they?"  
"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. We police the bad guys the police and Armed Forces can't. The Avengers Initiative is officially a sub-division, in reality we are an autonomous team that work in conjunction with Nick. Nick is the Director of SHIELD and officially I herd them, which means I make them fill out paperwork and man the comm.'s."  
"Ignore him, Phil keeps us alive and sane, between and during missions, we'd be lost without him."  
"Why Tony! I didn’t know you'd noticed! You call me 'Agent' most of the time."  
"Ha, ha. It's an affectionate nickname, and you know it."

Phil gave him a small smile before turning back to Dean.

"So, you signing up?"

Dean looked at Bruce questioningly.

"It's your decision Dean, joining SHIELD would solve a lot of issues, but it would create some too, and Nick would be your boss."  
"Nick's cool, but what issues?"  
"Officially, Nick could send you anywhere, on any mission, doing whatever he thinks he needs you for."  
"Nick is a good man, and a fantastic lover, but he is a heartless bastard when he thinks he needs to be, and he's usually right. He told us Phil was dead to make us pull our heads out of our ass's when Loki was trying to take over, it worked, it made us the team, the family, we are. He will do as bad, worse, if he thinks it will get the results he needs. He will get you killed if he needs to, but only if he needs to, he is a good man, but he doesn’t always act like one."

Tony looked Dean straight in the eye as he spoke, he refused to sugar-coat Nick, he wouldn’t do that to Dean or Nick, it wouldn’t be fair. Then he had a better idea.

"But why join SHIELD when you can join the Avengers?"

Everyone stared at him in stunned silence for a moment. He looked around at his team-mates questioningly before settling on Steve.

"Why not? We all know he's gonna end up here, he might as well start here."  
"You're not wrong. We'll talk to everyone this evening, when we're all here, clear it with everyone."

Tony's face lit up. Dean just looked stunned.

"Are you fucking KIDDING ME?"

Tony looked a little shocked at how well Dean was not taking this.

"What?"  
"What? Really? The Avengers are 'superhero's'! there is nothing 'super' about me, and I sure as hell aint no hero."  
"I've got to argue that, and you know I'm always right, so shut up now. You know damn well there are hundreds of people out there that have been saved by you, and thousands are still alive because of the creatures you have killed, and that's not even counting the apocalypse, you are the best type of hero Dean, the ones that don’t realise it."

Everyone looked at Loki, completely stunned, at that coming from the man they had stopped taking over the world not six months previously. 

"Tricks."  
"I said shut up. You can look at this any way you want Dean, you can twist it and spin it in a million and one ways, it doesn’t matter, you are a hero! You may not like the title, but tough shit. Like I said, you are the best type of hero, you do your job, you save lives and you don’t expect anything for it, not money and certainly not recognition. I know you like to hide in the shadows but you can't any more, get used to it."  
"Tricks."  
"Ah! What did I say? I thought you had already learnt that I'm always right? Get over your self, accept it, move on! Besides, from what I know of Stark he wont leave you with much choice in the matter."  
"Tony! Talk about learning! My name is Tony! And if you don’t start using it I'll throw 'you' out the window!"

Loki turned to give Tony a condescending sneer.

"Helping Dean will only get you so much good will 'mortal'."  
"JARVIS gets me a lot more! Even if Bruce weren't here, we've upgraded, try me."  
"Children! I believe we have more important things to decide than who has the bigger dick, so can it!"

Everyone turned to stare at Steve in disbelief. By the time they had shaken off their shock they had pretty much forgotten what they were arguing about. Steve smiled.

"Right, so Dean, Loki, Bruce and I will go and find Castiel in the morning, while the rest of you deal with Odin, and we try and keep Natasha away from everyone, sound about right? Good. Now I can smell food, and it smells delicious, so let's not waste it. JARVIS, can you call the others for me please, let them all know food will be ready soon and we have guests. Loki, don’t expect Clint or Natasha to be welcoming, and if you in any way provoke them we will find out exactly how well Tony has upgraded JARVIS, if Bruce doesn't stop you first. Remember you are a guest in this house and I will make sure everyone else remembers it too, forget and you will no longer be welcome."

Loki bristled a little at that, but one look at Dean was enough to stop him reacting, Dean was obviously happy here with these people, and he hadn't been lying when he said Thanos wouldn't have been able to force him to attack Midgard if he had known his boys were still alive, he would do almost anything for those boys. His own children had been taken from him, one by one, by Odin, and though the boys could never replace them, they had made the perfect outlet for his parental instincts and the love he couldn’t shower his own children with. He still spent a lot of time searching for Fenrir and talking to Jörmungandr and Hel, when he could hide from his father, though not nearly as much as he wanted to. He wouldn’t do anything to chance loosing Dean and Sam, he knew exactly how much it would hurt. He looked Steve in the eye and spoke quietly but clearly.

"Takk for din gjestfrihet. Ditt hjem er som min, familien din er som min."

Steve looked a little wary for a moment then looked to Thor, who smiled.

"It is traditional, I have not heard it from your tongue in many a moon brother. He thanked you for your welcome, your home and family are as his, they will be treated as he would treat his own. Loki is bound by his word as are all Æsir, he will not bring shame to this household."  
"Sorry to ask, and I actually am this time because I believe you mean it, but didn’t you bring shame on your own household all the time? I mean, I've been reading up on Norse mythology, and I'm sure most of it is bull, but seems your life's work was pissing people off."

Loki actually took that in the way it was meant and answered accordingly. 

"I was raised Æsir, from the time we knew our own names, we knew our godhoods. Thor is the Thunder God, I am the Trickster God, it is who we are."

Loki saw Nick, Clint and Natasha stop by the door and listen to him, but they weren't threatening him so he continued.

"I have been called many names, 'Father of Lies', 'Sky-Traveller' and 'Silver-Tongue' are some of the nice ones, but nobody ever expected Thor to not use the thunder, nobody looks down on 'him' for using his godhood, they praise him, they write ballads of his prowess, they ask him to show them more! 'Bring the lightning Thor!', 'Call the thunder Thor!' 'Let us kiss your perfect ass Thor!'. They worship the ground he walks on for following his nature, but me! Oh no, Loki is an abomination! Loki is a disgrace! Loki has no honour! Can you comprehend just how all-important honour is in Asgard? You are nothing if you have no honour! So I am nothing. I am of less worth than Volstagg's leftovers!"  
"You have never lied Loki!"  
"I know that you dolt! But none will believe me even so! They wont even listen to you when you tell them! They say I have ensnared you in some spell! Do they think Odin so old and infirm that he would not know if his beloved heir was under a spell? Even I am not so arrogant as to think I can fool Odin! I couldn’t hide Fenrir from him, why would they think I could hide ensnaring you?"  
"What?"

Thor's voice was glacial, his face like his beloved thunder and Loki actually looked scared before he hid it, or tried.

"I can't fool Odin. He can see through my magic and tricks, he always could."  
"That was not my meaning Loki, as well you know. Odin is not the only one who can see through your tricks and obfuscation, what did you mean, you couldn’t hide Fenrir?"  
"Don’t. Please Thor, don’t ask again. He will know, he always knows, I can't, just don’t, please!"

Loki looked so defeated Thor couldn’t help hugging him, Dean stood by his side glaring at everyone just in case they tried or said anything, as Loki hid his head in Thor's chest. Dean was fuming! His hands were twitching at his sides as they tried to find something to do and couldn't. 

Then he had an epiphany. 

"Tricks! You literally can't say anything can you?"

Loki shock his head, not even looking at him, Dean nodded his understanding, looked like that research was worth something after all!

"Right, can he do anything if 'I' tell Thor what I believe to be your history? Can I do that? It's just you he can hear isn't it? Sammy and me read this, we went mental when we thought it was the little shit we were trying to kill, but it's true isn't it?"

Loki nodded again, he knew what they would have found and Odin wasn’t monitoring anyone else, just him.

"Right, can you shake your head if I get something wrong? Does that count? Can he know you're doing that?"  
"He can't know unless I speak of them."  
"Right, then keep your mouth shut and just shake your head if I get it wrong ok? Thor, you're acting like you don’t know this shit, so keep your yap shut till I'm finished, got it? I don’t care what you think or feel, the old bastard could be watching you too, so you don’t say a word!"

Thor was frowning and obviously pissed already, but he agreed, if this was going where he thought it was he knew just how important keeping it from his father was. Dean nodded and looked around at the others, this was not going to go down well.

"Right, Fathers are the worst thing that can happen to anybody, ok? And adoptive counts, maybe more, not settled on that one yet. So, according to everything we could find on Loki, we thought someone else was him, he had four kids, the first three, Hel, Jörmungandr and Fenrir were by some frost giant broad, Odin took them away from him when they were still tiny cause of some prophecy bull shit that said they would lead to Ragnarok, Hel was given her own realm, Jörmungandr was thrown to Earth's seas and Fenrir was chained to a rock. Sleipnir is his youngest son, it's weird and complicated but he's an eight legged horse and Odin keeps him as his own personal mount, even though he's his grandson! Problem with prophecy is it's so often self fulfilling, if there hadn't been a prophecy of the Righteous Man I wouldn’t have ended up in Hell and the first seal wouldn’t have been broken. If Loki's kids hadn't been treated like shit for crap they haven't done yet they wouldn’t be pissed at Odin and would probably fight for him, along with their dad, at Ragnarok, instead, they wanna get back at the bastard for making them suffer all their lives! So, if we can find the poor bastards, especially Fenrir, we can save them and might save others in the future, or we can say fuck it and just kill Odin when he gets here in the morning."  
"And that is why you wont be here in the morning! There will be no killing of Odin, or anyone else for that matter."  
"Son of a bitch deserves it! Chained his own grandson to a rock just because he's different! Throw's the other in a foreign sea, out side his own 'realm' for fucks sake! And gives his granddaughter a cushy job looking after the dead, just as long as she never contacts her parents! What kind of fucked up piece of shit does that?"  
"My father, apparently. This is not what I was told! I was told many a foul thing, but not this! I believe Mother should join us on the morn, along with father."

Loki jerked back out of his arms and stared at him in stunned silence.

"What?"  
"You heard brother. I fear it is well past time Mother and Father talked, and I know just how to start the conversation. Tony, can you get me something I can show Mother? A book containing these tales, apparently better known in Midgard than Asgard? I would that she read these things while Father is shown the proof of Loki's innocence. She will deal with Father."  
"You would do that?"  
"How long have you known me brother? Had I but known I would have dealt with this much sooner, had I known it would never have happened! Mother would never countenance it! Had we but known! That is a conversation for the morn, lest anything untoward happen before Mother learns of this. I will go now and give my message to Heimdall. Have courage brother, this will be dealt with."

With that, Thor gave Loki a tight squeeze, pulled away, turned on his heel and left. 

"And I thought my dad was bad! Yours make him look like a runner for 'dad of the year'!"

Everyone turned to stare at Tony.

"What? They do!"  
"I know Tony, but saying it isn't exactly appropriate."  
"I think most of us can agree that our fathers were anything but decent, or just not around for one reason or another. Appropriate or not Nick, he is right."  
"Thank you Bruce! God I need a drink!"

His team all glared at him, so Tony raised his hands in surrender.

"I meant coffee! You lot are worse than J!"  
"Thank you Sir."  
"You know what I meant too! I know you did because you just turned the coffee maker on."  
"Indeed Sir, but it is fun to wind you up."  
"Laugh it up Chuckles, I can still donate you, ya know!"  
"Of course Sir."

The sarcasm practically dripped off of every word and Tony couldn’t help grinning.

"Love you too babe. Anyone else for a coffee?"

None of the Avengers were overly keen on Loki, he had tried to kill them all and take over the world, not to mention taking over Clint's mind and killing Phil, but they were starting to see some of the reasons behind his behaviour, especially after JARVIS had shown Clint and Natasha the footage of Tony pointing out Loki's eye colour and the significance of it's change. Didn’t mean they liked him, or trusted him, but it did give him a little grace to earn their respect, though not much from Clint.

The Avengers and Nick all moved to the coffee maker to get drinks, Bruce keeping a close watch on Dean, while Dean and Loki stayed where they were. Dean nodded to Bruce then turned his attention to Loki.

"We'll sort this Tricksy. If they can't, I'll find a way. I promise you, I will!"  
"I know you would try Dean, but he is the All Father for a reason, even I could not hope to best him."  
"Maybe not, but I'd find a way, if it bleeds, it dies. I've been to Heaven and Hell and survived both, I've survived hoards of Angels and Demons and everything in between. Sam and I put Lucifer pack in the pit and stopped Armageddon! We can do anything with a little time, trust me."  
"I have always trusted you Dean, that's why I came back every time."  
"Good. So you know I will fix this if they can't, one way or another."

Dean spoke with such conviction that Loki couldn’t help smiling, and believing him. A small, vindictive, part of his mind sniggered at the thought of Dean Winchester being the one to finally kill Odin, but the rest of him knew that despite his many faults and class A parenting that Asgard needed Odin, at least until Thor took his place, and if Dean did kill him someone was bound to take offence and that would end up in a bloody feud, which nobody needed. It was an amusing thought though. He shook it off before he got too engrossed and squeezed Dean's shoulder, smiling at him with just a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

"I know you would Dean, I just hope you don’t have to. To be fair, chances are good that Mother will fix it, once she finds out. I have been bound, so I didn’t know that she and Thor didn’t know until now. We will talk later, once it is dealt with."  
"That helps doesn’t it? That they didn’t know?"  
"Yes. It is bad enough that he would do such a thing, but thinking they agreed, that 'Thor' believed it to be just? Yes, it helps, more than I can express, more than he can know."  
"Yeah. Sam started sounding like dad for a while, that hurt more than anything dad ever did."  
"That man is lucky, more so than any mortal has a right to. If it weren't for your regard for him Fenrir's life would have looked pleasant in comparison to what I would have done to him. Hel has him now, he is learning the error of his ways. Don’t look at me like that Dean, you know he deserves it, and more! Blood or not, he was your father, and you were a child! You do not know what it took, how many times he came so close to an 'accident' so I could take you away from him! But you still believed in him, you looked at him with such awe in your beautiful eyes. That monster took every scrap of innocence Azazel left you with! The things he made you do!"  
"Tricksy! That's enough!"  
"I know I would like to hear more, but that choice is Deans. Just in case you hadn't realised, none of us here is human average, if this conversation is supposed to be privet you need to leave the floor, at least."

Dean looked at Bruce in stunned silence, there had been a lot of those lately, for a moment, then glared at Loki.

"You fucking Dick!"

And started storming toward the elevator. He was so mad he couldn’t think straight, he had to get out of there, just knowing how the others minds would be running over what Loki had said, imagining all of the worst possible things he could have meant, the whole thing had him mortified and humiliated and furious beyond reason, so when Bruce spoke he reacted 'really' badly.

"Dean! Come here!"  
"Screw you!"  
"Dean!"

The word was a dull roar coming from deep in Bruce's chest, and as Dean turned to glare at him he saw his eyes flash bright emerald green. It was the first hint of Bruce's 'other guy' that Dean had seen and it made him stop as his breath caught in his throat. Bruce growled, deep and low, and Dean whined, head automatically dropping and tipping, baring his throat as Bruce stood waiting for him. Bruce growled again, he wasn’t going to give in, and Dean knew it, so he slowly, and reluctantly, made his way over to him, finally stopping right in front of him. Bruce growled once more, he understood why Dean was fighting him, he had been pissed at Loki for what he had said, and his independence and stubbornness had kicked in as soon as Bruce had spoken to him, but they both knew their relationship had boundaries, however new it was and Dean had just trampled them into the dust. To be fair, if Bruce had let him get away with it, it would have been the end of them, Dean would have lost all respect for and trust in him. Dean had handed his self over to Bruce the day before, and new or not, he knew exactly what he had been doing, he 'needed' Bruce to keep him in check, just like Bruce had said he would, he needed to be able to trust him to reign him in, however far he had gone, so that he knew he would always be safe. Bruce knew all this as much as Dean did, and he had no intention of killing their relationship this soon, if ever, so he knew he had to push Dean, had to make him realise he was safe, because Bruce would always reign him in if it was needed, like right now. So he growled again, and Dean whimpered, dropping to his knees, hands on his thighs and throat bared in full submission, shaking. Bruce took a deep breath and inched forward enough so Dean's head was resting on his thigh, carding his fingers through his hair and murmuring softly to him, letting him know he was still loved.

Bruce finally looked around the room once Dean had stopped shaking. His friends were respectfully paying attention to him, not Dean, and Loki was looking miserable, he had never intended to hurt Dean. 

"I apologise for the outburst."

Steve shocked everyone again by giving him a small smile.

"No need Bruce, sometimes things happen. We can give you some room if you'd like."  
"Thank you, but it wont be necessary. The food will spoil if it isn't dished out soon and Dean worked hard on it with Tony. Dean and I will be back in a moment, if you will excuse us."  
"See you then."

Bruce nodded at Steve and looked down at Dean, who hadn't moved.

"Come with me, on your feet."

Dean didn’t say a word, and didn’t look up from the floor, just followed Bruce out of the room silently. Bruce sighed as he led them to one of the side rooms and sat his self on a comfy chair. Dean immediately knelt as his feet, still stiff but compliant. Bruce petted his hair for a while then pulled his head down onto his lap, giving him a little more contact while they talked.

"What did you do wrong Dean?"

Dean snorted as a million and one smart answers ran through his head but refrained from voicing any of them, he actually thought about it for a while then snorted again once he had figured it out.

"I ignored you, after I got shitty with you."  
"Right. I can understand, Loki should have thought before he spoke."  
"And I went ahead and did the same thing."  
"Yes, you did. Which just made you look…"  
"Like a dick. I'm sorry Bruce."  
"Not what I was going to say but good enough. And apology accepted. Do you think you can go back in there and eat properly?"  
"No."  
"Because you really can't or because you've embarrassed your self?"  
"Last one."  
"Honest, good, thank you. Now get off your ass and get back in there, I'm hungry and you have to face them some time. If I can face them after loosing 'my' temper, so can you."

Dean grinned up at him at that.

"True. And thanks, for stopping me."  
"Always, you can rely on it."  
"I am."  
"I know baby, I know. Now quit stalling and get in there.

************

When Bruce and Dean had left the room Loki just seemed to collapse, sitting on the floor with his legs crossed and his head in his hands, shoulders shaking as he cried silently. The others looked at each other, not having a clue what to do with a crying Loki, wishing Thor was back already. Eventually Nick sighed and shook his head.

"I'm supposed to be on vacation! Loki! Pull your self together man! Tony, Steve, sort out the food, the rest of you can sort out the table. Loki, get up! If Dean comes back out here to find you like this, how is that gonna help?"  
"What does it matter? I've ruined everything!"  
"Everything my ass! Get a grip, and get over your self. You're listening to your own hype, now suck it up before that boy gets back in here and sees his hero in a mess on the floor."  
"What?"  
"You heard me! That boy worships you, no pun intended, you can see it in everything he says and does around you, even when you piss him off, if anyone so much as insulted you even now he'd have their head. Now get up, I wanna see how 'real power' apologises!"

Loki glared up at him at that, obviously remembering that conversation as well as Nick did. He did get up though, his movements swift and graceful, even with a tear-stained face, which he quickly took care of, tears never did a glare any favours! Nick smirked at him then turned back to the table to sit down. Loki paused for a few moments, gathering his self and planning how to deal with this. He knew Dean liked him, trusted him even, and would allow his help in a tight spot, even if he wouldn’t let him do anything about John, but he had never seen Dean react like he had to Bruce and he had never been mad at him before either. He wasn’t sure about the first but knew he hated the last. The feeling that had taken over his gut when Dean glared at him had been almost as bad as loosing his children, and he never wanted to feel like that again. He resolved to find a way to make it up to Dean and put it out of his mind for a moment, then thought on the Bruce issue. How exactly did he feel about the 'dull creature' controlling 'his' Dean? Well, Dean certainly wasn’t complaining, the relief that had flooded off the boy as soon as Bruce took control of him was palpable, he obviously wanted and appreciated it. All things considered he was pretty certain Dean needed someone, and really, who better than the Hulk? He could certainly protect Dean, that went without saying, evidentially he could control Dean, the only real question was would he keep Dean? He resolved to have a chat with Bruce once he could get him alone, see what his intentions were and go from there. He heard the handle of the door they had left through start to move and flitted to one of the empty chairs around the table, he would never admit it but Fury was right, it wouldn’t do to let Dean see how upset he had been, he knew from experience that Dean would get angry first, anger was always his first reaction to pain of any kind, it was a self defence mechanism a whole life time in the making and wouldn’t be easy to override. He also knew how provocative the little shit could be when he put his mind to it, weather he was inciting lust, anger or anything else he was aiming for Dean was bloody good at it, and he didn’t want him doing anything to piss off the Avengers, they were the only thing standing between him and the All Father, but most importantly they were trying to help Dean. He sat quietly letting the conversation wash over him, and found it surprisingly soothing to be surrounded by the lively conversation that didn’t even stop when Bruce and Dean arrived.

By the time Dean finally looked up from the floor as they walked back into the room Loki was sat at the table, next to Tony of all people, and regarding him sheepishly. Dean sighed, he couldn’t stay mad at him any more than he could at Sam but he was really pissed, and hurt that Loki had told everyone like that, it wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair. Dean of all people knew life was far from fair but he expected more from his friends, so he ignored Loki completely. He knew if he looked at him he would cave in and forgive him, and he wasn’t ready for that yet. Bruce looked at Dean, then Loki and shook his head, this was going to take some fixing, Dean wasn’t even looking at Loki and Loki's face fell for a moment before he pulled up a mask of indifference and stared at his plate. Bruce took hold of Deans hand and squeezed it tightly before pulling him to the table, nudging him in the direction of the seat next to Loki. Dean looked up at him balefully and shook his head slightly, Bruce sighed again and nodded, letting him take the other seat and sitting next to Loki his self, Dean sitting stiffly at his other side. Bruce looked around the table and was grateful his friends were all ignoring the situation, or at least acting like they were. 

Dean just knew everyone was watching his every move, even though nobody was looking at him, and he hated it, just as much as he hated silence. Dean had always hated to be the centre of attention, oh he wanted attention all right, but from one or two people, generally centred around sex, not from a room full of people with no sex on the horizon. He had barely raised his head since Bruce growled at him the first time but now his shoulders started rising, hunching in on his self, making his self as small as possible, which wasn’t easy for a man of his height, he only looked short next to Sam, around the rest of the population he was actually quite tall. He was a little shorter than Thor, Loki and Nick, the same height as Happy, but taller than anyone else that lived in the tower, and trying to disappear at the table was really not going to work, however hard he tried, though he gave it a damn good go. 

Tony looked around Loki and Bruce to see Dean, knowing he liked this kind of situation about as much as he did and tried to think of a way to help. He came up blank and looked imploringly at Nick who always seemed to have a plan for everything. Nick sighed, why did he always have to think of something? Why couldn’t someone else take care of everyone for once? Not that he actually minded, he loved that Tony had such faith in him, that he still believed in him and his ability to fix anything, it was quite the ego boost from the man that miniaturised the arc reactor and created Iron Man in a cave. Nick looked over at Bruce who gave him a similar look, also not knowing how to move past this particular cluster fuck. Nick thought for a moment then grinned. The food Tony and Dean had prepared had been passed around the table but Dean hadn't taken anything, sitting quietly and hoping to be ignored. Loki had taken a few of the vegetables and was moving them around his plate without eating anything. Nick knew it was a low blow but he figured it would work, so what the hell?

"Deans cooking not good enough for you Loki?"  
"Pardon?"  
"The food, not good enough? Dean screw up or what?"  
"Guest or not, I will not stand for that! Near everything he knows he has taught his self! You will show him respect!"  
"Like you do?"  
"Do not test me mortal! I fail easily!"  
"Yeah, we've seen that time and again!"

Nick looked over to Dean as the man stood up, pushing his chair back so roughly it clattered to the floor, leaning on his fists on the table, his eyes stormy and full of fire as he glared a painful death at Nick, his voice quiet and ice cold.

"You don’t know me, so this one is free, never again. You say what you want about me, I really couldn’t care less, you don’t start on mine."

Nick looked him dead in the eye and nodded his understanding, then he grinned at Loki.

"Told ya!"

Loki nodded dumbly as he looked at Dean in wonder, even now, after such a monumental cock up, Dean was jumping to his defence. Dean narrowed his eyes, seriously pissed at being played again. This really couldn’t go on. He locked eyes with every person around the table until he was sure he had their undivided attention.

"You don’t know me. I get that, but you gotta get this, I don’t deal well with being played. Aint one of you the bastard called his self my father, aint one of you my brother. You might think I'm a subby little bitch, don’t make me prove you wrong."

Dean turned away from the table and stalked out of the room, calmly but obviously with no intention of stopping. Bruce was not a stupid man, he knew he didn’t need reigning in, he wasn’t loosing his temper or even slightly in the wrong, so he left him to calm down while he looked around the table at his team.

"That went well!"

Only Tony!

"And it always works so well on me! Who'd have thought?"

Then he carried on eating his meal. Bruce shook his head grinning at his friend, Steve was looking like a landed fish and Nick was a little surprised.

"Never thought he'd take it like that."  
"So would you after what he's been through. I could give you nightmares with the story of his life, but he would probably find a way to castrate me. The vegetables are better hot by the by."

Bruce smirked at Loki in agreement as he stood up, quietly excusing his self and going to find Dean. It didn’t take long, Dean was waiting for him in the corridor just outside the room. He didn’t speak, just stood next to Dean where he was leaning against the wall. Dean sighed.

"Your friends can be dicks."  
"Yup."  
"Why?"  
"He thought it would get a point across to Loki and get you two talking again."  
"Failed."  
"Works with Tony all the time, and you act a lot like Tony, you have a hell of a lot in common, I thought it was working too."  
"Spent my whole life being played by one son of a bitch or other, I don’t need it."  
"I'm seeing that. We all have a lot to learn about each other."  
"Yeah."  
"That's why we had that girly afternoon about triggers, we all needed it."  
"Starting to wish I was there."  
"Yeah, me too."

Dean shook his head and stood away from the wall.

"You should eat, you're hungry."  
"And you are too. They wont hold it against you Dean."  
"Maybe not, but I'm pissed, any little thing is gonna set me off, then I'll be the dick."  
"So don’t let it. I know, easy to say, but you can do it."

Dean just looked at him for a long while before sighing and straightening his back, then he nodded and walked back into the room and sat quietly at the table. Bruce smiled as he followed him and dished them both up some food. The rest of the meal was a little subdued but everyone eventually started talking again.

************


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The rest of the night had been quiet, everyone had gone to their own rooms after they had finished cleaning up, and Bruce had gently taken Dean apart, both of them sleeping soundly afterward. By the time Dean, Loki, Bruce and Steve were ready to go and find Castiel Dean was wishing he had just stayed in bed. Thor and Loki both suddenly looked up, feeling the Bifrost open above them and quickly looked to each other.

"Go!"

Loki wasted no time listening to Thor, he grabbed the others and was gone in a flash of light. Dean, Bruce and Steve looked around, Dean was the only one used to being zapped places instantaneously but the others shook it off and tried to figure out where they were. They were stood on the side of a hill and Loki was staring into the garden of the closest house. Castiel was sat on a blanket on the lawn with half a dozen children in front of him, talking animatedly and obviously holding their full attention as the adults watched on full of indulgent smiles. One man was tending the big barbeque and there was a table full of salad and rolls waiting to be eaten. A smaller table was covered in bottles of fruit juice and jugs of what looked like squash. The first burgers came off the grill as they watched and some of the adults made up rolls full of salad and gave one to each of the children, who barely acknowledged them they were so engrossed in the story. The four of them stood for over half an hour as Cas finished his story then sent the children off to get more food before he collected a plate of salad and a heavily laden burger for his self. Bruce was searching the internet on his phone and finally showed Dean what he had found. Casey Novak lived in the comfortable corner house, he ran a bible school, often hosting parties for the less advantaged families in the area. He made a point never to spend any time alone with any of the children in his care and nobody had a bad word to say about him, many hailing him a modern day saint. Dean couldn’t just walk away while there was any chance his friend might be waiting for him, so he knocked on the front door and waited. 

The door opened and Castiel greeted him with a warm but vague, welcoming smile.

"Hello?"  
"Hi, I was wondering if Jimmy was here?"

Dean couldn’t help the hope that was still holding on tooth and claw, but he had known as soon as he met the mans eyes that this was no longer his friend. Just like last time he had been bought back without his memories Cas was lost to him.

"I'm sorry but there's no Jimmy here today, I can look him up for you if you like?"  
"Nah man, I must have the wrong place, don’t worry about it, I'll go back and check again."

Dean stepped back, trying to get away before this stranger saw the heartbreak in his eyes, only he was too late.

"Please? Let me try to help?"

Dean couldn’t help looking at him at that, it was just so Cas! He smiled even as he fought the tears.

"You just did Dude, live a good one, and take care of your self."

He turned away and the smile fell off his face. He walked quickly back to the others and crowded Bruce, needing the comfort.

"Take us back Tricks, he's not here."  
"Yes he is. He may not know it but you do, a quick poke in the right place and he'll remember everything, then he can fix that graffiti on your ribs."  
"He doesn’t remember anything, he thinks he's human, he's happy, how am I supposed to take that from him? I can't let you do it Tricks. How am I supposed to live with my self if I let you rip that away from him just so you can feel better about knowing where I am all the time?"  
"You can't Deano."

Dean spun around and stared at the man behind them in stunned awe for a moment.

"Gabriel? But! We thought you were dead!"  
"I was, big brother made a right mess of me, made me wonder why I'd bothered feeling guilty about going against him. Apparently Cas isn't Dad's only favourite, he bought me back too, everything in tact and stronger than ever, he just took his time about it is all. When I woke up I went looking for everyone, found Lucy and Mickey in the pit, such a shame, Cassie doing his best impersonation of a human after failing to impersonate Dad, Raphael gone and Heaven in an uproar, typical really, I'm gone for five minutes and everything goes to hell."

Dean couldn’t help snorting his amusement at that, the others just looked at him for a moment before staring at the archangel again. 

"So what you doing with them now? You running the joint?"  
"Not a lot of choice. I'm the only archangel left and Cassie's gone human on us, or he thinks he is, so close enough. Poor little guy needs a break Deano, he wasn’t made for all of this, he did his best but he just isn't made for it."  
"We weren't made to win the Apocalypse either, but we did it. With enough help you can do anything."  
"Almost anything Deano, almost. But you can't change your nature. You are a born fighter, a leader however much you hate it, and your sex life aside, you were made for that fight. Father may not have told us what he had planned, but you, what you did, it was no accident Dean, I know my Father. Michael may have been his right hand but I was his sword. You want to know how to judge a people Dean? You check how they treat their old and infirm, the insane and young and useless, and then you check how they fight, criminals and foreigners alike, that's how you judge Dean. 'I' am how my Father fights, I am in a better place than most to judge him, and I judge him fair. 'Do unto others' wasn’t just something he thought up on the spur of the moment, it's how he has always lived. More to the point, bringing Cassie back to his self wont help you at all, he can't change the sigils without removing them, and that would be dangerous for you Deano. I can fix it though, a little re-wording and your mother hen here and I will be able to find you any time we like. Good enough for you Loki?"  
"Good enough."  
"Hey! You two know each other?"  
"Why do you think I used his name? It worked wonders for both our sense of humour."  
"Of course it did. An archangel pretending to be a god, pretending to be a trickster all for a giggle with the god he was impersonating in the first place. Welcome to my life."  
"Don’t worry about him Dean, I'm keeping an eye on him, he'll live a happy and peaceful life until he's ready to come back home, he just needs a break. You have plenty of time, just let him deal in his own time."  
"Of course you knew! So what was with the whole Groundhog Day thing?"  
"I figure you'd rather live forever as you are now, in mostly one piece, not as you would be by the time you finally slowed down enough to let something get the drop on you, you just didn’t need to know about it at the time. If you hadn't met Coulson it would have been years before you noticed you weren't aging, by then you would have probably been mature enough to handle it, Sam might even have grown up a bit!"  
"Don’t start, please."

Gabriel stared at Dean in respectful surprise and nodded, then turned to Bruce.

"You are good for him, keep it that way. They might not like or appreciate it but both the boys are under my protection, and while your other form may be able to beat an Æsir, you wont beat an Archangel."  
"Gabe! Don’t be threatening my man!"  
"Gabe? Wow, I really must have grown on you to get a nickname!"  
"Yeah, like fungus. You wanna get with the re-write already?"  
"So demanding Deano! I don’t know how you keep up Brucie!"

As Gabriel was speaking he clicked his fingers and Dean bit back a gasp as a sharp burn cut across his ribs. Gabriel gave him a slight smile and nodded, then he disappeared with the feint sound of flapping wings. Dean took a deep breath then smiled as he heard the echo of Gabriel's chuckle in his mind, just to let him know he would be around.

"Take us back Tricks, that barbeque is making me hungry."

They all refrained from calling him on that, though Steve was still staring in disbelief at where Gabriel had been standing. Loki sighed as the knowledge of Dean's whereabouts and well being were finally back in his head where they should be and took them back to the Tower.

When they arrived Loki looked to Thor hopefully. Dean sighed and demanded a report, he had had as much emotion as he could deal with in one day, and got the short version from Tony.

"Odin and Frigga came, classy lady by the way, Odin wasn’t happy, Frigga less so! Thor gave her the book to read while we showed Odin the footage, which he couldn’t argue with, then she got to the good bit and went kinda white? Looked a little homicidal to be honest, just glared at him and called Heimdall. Haven't heard from them since but I don’t think we'll be having any problems from Daddy dearest for a while."

Loki looked at Thor while Tony was speaking and a slow smile spread across his face.

"She didn’t know. You didn’t know and she didn’t know!"  
"No brother, we did not know, but now we do, and Mother will deal with Father, and I shall get my niece and nephews back."

Loki keened at that and threw his self on Thor, wrapping his arms tightly around his neck, burying his head in his shoulder.

"My babies Thor! My babies! I want my babies back!"  
"Awe Tricks, don’t! You know I can't stand crying!"

Loki pulled away from Thor and latched on to Dean at that, sobbing into his shoulder. Dean tried to look put out but everyone could see right through him and he didn’t even bother trying for long, he just held him as tight as he could and crooned comfortingly to him, petting him and rocking gently. Dean met everyone's eyes as he held his friend close, already making plans for the future with Loki's three kids to spoil.

 

Perfectus.


End file.
